The Eighth Hunter
by JulianR94
Summary: Seven Hunters continuity / A human, his existence twisted by a preternatural stone, discovers himself not only altered into a primeval predator, but in a whole new world. Or rather, an old world. Burdened with uncertainty, haunted by weird dreams, he must pursue the path of the unknown. But to what end? Only one thing is certain: Nothing will ever be the same again. For everyone.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I do not own The Land Before Time or any of its characters. Same goes for The Seven Hunters, its lore and any affiliated characters or settings. This fanfiction is created purely for non-profit and creative purposes.

* * *

 **Alright, first of all, I want to say a few things about the "T" Rating, because this is a touchy matter indeed, I feel:  
I have downgraded the rating from an "M", since I felt like excluding that rating from the story search list without filitering it is kind of unfair. Especially considering that this story, naturally, is not going to be gory in every single chapter. However, as soon as the "action bubbles" eventually take place, I can say that it will be quite messy. Which I do believe is necessary in this setting. Of course, I will try not to exaggerate with overly graphic depictions but better safe than sorry. Just like Rhombus, I want to be very honest about the reality of predator and prey lives alike. Also, strong language in some parts. After all, I believe that every being capable of speaking swears quite a bit, if not in spoken words every time. ;)**

 **So all in all: Viewer Discretion is Strongly Advised! Consider this story rated T+++.  
**

* * *

 **So then: Greetings, everyone. My name is Julian, and I have been sneaking around this site for several weeks prior to finally creating an account of my own. Now, I originally didn't create this account to write stories myself actually, but after reading all this amazing stuff that's on here I felt the obligation to contribute to it after all.**

 **This is my very first attempt at doing this, but I always felt comfortable with creative writing so it should be alright. That does not mean I wouldn't greatly appreciate any sort of constructive criticism and ideas you lot might have.**

 **So please, do give me some feedback, either by small reviews or faving or following this story! I would highly welcome it, and I hope to be learning from that as well! :)**

 **Before we start, it is my duty to say that the whole framework, a lot of characters and the background for many of my ideas were created by "The Amazing Rhombus". Especially his first story "The Seven Hunters" provides the background knowledge you might want to have to understand what's going on and what happened to the original gang of seven, so I highly suggest you to read this 75 Chapter long masterpiece of his, if you haven't done so already. And if you're at it, make sure to have a good look at his other works as well, as they are just as good and might provide you with some more information and detail.**

 **However, I strongly believe my story does stand on its own. So, if you have an open mind, patience, and you're ready for another adventure, then I'll happily invite you to just go for it! :) If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. In any event, down at the bottom of this chapter you will find a very brief summary of The Seven Hunters.**

 **So, now that that's out of the way, I hope you're in for the ride! I sincerely hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Prologue**

 _ **"Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." - Common saying  
**_

The moon shined brightly on the peaceful scenery below. The only few obvious signs of life were making themselves known through their high-pitched tweeting and chirping in the small forest nearby. Creatures of different types, together filling the night with their songs.

Yet, there was clearly something else there. With deliberately slow and silent movement, another creature made its way out into the open and sat down under the spacious porch.

It was only after the beams of light that the moon reflected hit parts of its face that one could have seen a pair of green eyes, outlined by black frames, carefully scanning the surroundings, adapting to the darkness all around. Time seemed to pause for this creature as it admired the beauty, tranquility and peacefulness of this dark, moonlit scenery.

With a slow but determined move of its arm, this peculiar creature stroked through its short, dark golden mane and pulled a white stick-like thing with an orange bottom from behind its right ear, put it into its mouth, and after two audible clicks, using one of the many artificial tools of its kind, finally set fire to it.

Gentle sizzling. Inhale, exhale. Wads of blue and grey smoke ascended into the moonlight.

 _Ahh, always hits the spot... Been a long day._ The male human thought to himself, bittersweet taste of tobacco fumes greeting his delicate senses, while he looked up fascinated at the bright full moon, which didn't even seem to be so far above him. As the nicotine rushed to his brain and unfolded its effects, which caused him to experience this lightheaded feeling he was very much looking forward to, he couldn't help but feel strangely safe and in control in the darkness that embraced everything in the nighttime. Such has it been for the longest time. Darkness meant security to him, quiet and calm. A personal realm to relax and recapitulate the events of the day, shielded from any unwanted interruptions.

After exhaling another few wads of smoke, his thoughts drifted off. Into considerations that were quite usual for his kind.

 _That's my, uh... seventh today... Hmm, I really should be stepping down a notch..._ He started pondering before immediately dismissing this idea again. _Oh, what the hell, who am I kidding? We all have to die one day. At least I can enjoy what I want for as long as I can. Besides, that's well within the margin. Awake for, what, 18 hours now? Tzz... Not like this one would turn my life around.  
_

Faintly smiling now, he looked down at the red glowing tip of his cigarette, twisting it around a bit between his fingertips, which made the smoke seemingly dance in the midnight air. It would be a night just like any other. And in just a few more hours he would have to get up again, to attend to some unfinished educational stuff. But until then, he would enjoy this ritual of his and not let anything ruin that.

Or so he thought to himself. But how wrong could he have been?

 **Boom!**

His gaze immediately shot up at the sky, startled, as soon as that distant booming sound reached his ears.

He had always been proud of his excellent sense of hearing, which helped him in understanding and solving multiple situations in his life already. That did not quite make up for his rather poor eyesight, though, he always deduced. But he was indeed a very strange specimen when it came to perception. Without his optical aids, his eyes were quite terrible, but as soon as he just wore his glasses or contacts, he had the eyes of a raptorial bird. His sense of smell, too, was what he would have described as 'above average'. However much all this really meant for a mere human, and however logical and realistic he really was about that.

But right now, all of this didn't matter a single bit to him as he asked the inevitable question out loud while leaving the porch, now standing right in the open.

"Woah... What... in the world was that?"

Everything seemed to have gone silent, even the frequent chirping from the crickets and a few birds in the forest had paused. After a few more moments, though, which felt more like an eternity to him, the sounds of life all around came back. Everything was back to normal again.

Seemingly...

"Nothing... Huh, pathetic..."

 _Probably just a jet or big firecracker or something... Should've known..._

A sigh, then a slight chuckle left his mouth, and with a now somewhat uneasy mind he decided to finish his cigarette and soon go to sleep. He hadn't really done much over the day, but felt strangely tired and exhausted, now that he thought about it. Though that could've also been due to his much higher heartbeat, the effects of the little shock and the nicotine having mixed, culminating in a far from relaxing feeling.

One last wad of blue smoke went up into the night sky as he flicked the still slightly glowing cigarette several meters over the nearby fence and into the darkness. He would get the stub tomorrow morning, perhaps, and dispose of it properly. The climate was not even close to what he would have described as 'mild' at the moment, and certainly not arid, so he did not really feel concern about a potential fire hazard.

Already having his front turned towards the door of his home, he decided to allow himself one last look at the beautiful moon.

And it was only then that he noticed something strange. He adjusted his glasses and squinted his eyes at what appeared to be a tiny object, thousands of kilometers in the distance, which seemed to hover right next to the moon.

"Huh? What is...?"

He didn't even have time to finish his sentence as the object suddenly and rapidly grew larger. Its outlines became more clearly visible.

A blue ball of light, embraced by the blazing hot flames that the entry into earth's atmosphere caused. Petrified by the sight of this beautiful, yet terrifying object, which was seemingly about to crash right into him within the next few seconds, he never even thought about moving.

This just couldn't be. This just had to be his imagination, or a misinterpretation. This just didn't make any sense.

"But... Oh... shit!"

He merely whispered these words as he dropped to the paved ground, acting out of instinct, rolling against the hard stones of the nearby porch, eyes closed and his hands covering his head. He could've sworn seeing a bright flash of blue light, even with his eyes firmly shut and him facing the ground, his glasses firmly pressing against his nose and temples.

A quick moment of realization, perhaps. Now he started to expect a shockwave that would throw him around and probably kill him, perhaps wipe out the entire neighborhood. What a foolish decision it had been to not run inside for cover.

But nothing happened.

In fact, everything had gone silent again. Everything but his anxious breathing and the heavy pounding of his heart that resonated in his ears. This crept him out more than any horror story, game or movie could have done in his entire life, indeed filling him with honest dread and horror. He imagined the area around him dead, a wasteland of rubble, deprived of all life.

Yet, he was still breathing.

He reluctantly opened his eyes again, letting out an audible groan of pain as he rose back to his feet. Despite wearing a comfortable wool jacket, he must have lacerated both of his lower arms. Though, right now, this probably was the least of his concerns.

Carefully scanning the environment again, he couldn't help but feel even more horrified now. It seemed as if nothing had happened at all. That mysterious object, which seconds ago raced towards him with incredible speed, had just disappeared. No trace of it could be found anywhere around.

That was when he turned around and took a closer look at the small forest next to his home. Almost undiscernible, a blue light was emitted from somewhere between the large trees and many bushes. He hesitated, unsure about how to process this, but ultimately, with carefully slow movement, he began walking towards that place.

So much entranced by wonder, or perhaps an incomprehensibly powerful force, that he did not even notice all the small lights on every house around had gone dark.

There was only silent darkness, him, and the dim blue light in the woods.

Edging closer to the mysterious object, after around half a minute of time standing right in front of it, he abruptly stopped. Almost as if the force that had dragged him here let go now. However, he didn't ponder this. His eyes were firmly fixed on the stone from the sky. The light coming from that stone was now extremely bright. So bright that it hurt his eyes to look at it directly for more than a few seconds, the fresh scratches that were now on his glasses not helping much.

But, despite all this, the environment around it was unaffected by it. None of the trees around this area took on that blue hue. Neither the trees, nor the bushes, nor the lone human. In fact, not even the surprisingly small crater in which the rock stood.

 _How... can this be? This must've flown faster than a bullet... It's almost like... this thing isn't meant to disturb anyone who didn't see it coming down._

This uneasy thought crossed his mind two times before he finally broke out of his pondering and shook his head, muttering to himself.

"Pff! What bullshit. This is the real world. Stuff like that only happens in stories."

However, his spoken words should not reflect the unspoken afterthought in his head. Only if one could have read his mind, one would've heard an addition to that sentence.

 _...does it not?  
_

Indeed, he was at a loss for any reasonable ideas. He walked around the rock for over a minute, thinking about what to do now. Technically, he was allowed to do what he pleased to do with that rock. There were a lot of rules and laws in the human society, but none of them explicitly prevented him from taking a stone which fell out of the sky back to his home. And if there were, he didn't know of any. However, as with many things in human society, there were certain exceptions. Where laws and regulations didn't apply anymore.

And this was certainly one of them. Here, common sense had to be applied.

 _Crap, what am I doing here? I have to call the police. Who knows, maybe this thing is dangerous? A stone shouldn't have this weird glow.  
_

With that, he stepped back from the rock and pulled out a black, rectangle shaped device from his jeans. His concerned look quickly turned into a weird mix of surprise and serious uneasiness, however.

His cellphone wasn't working anymore. At all. Several times he pressed the only three buttons it had to no avail, even though it definitely was almost fully charged, not having been operated much over the day. He quickly suspected he broke it when jumping to the ground earlier, but the device did not have a single scratch on it. At least none that he could make out with his fingers, as it was too dark to make out clear details.

Looking back in the direction of the blue glowing rock, then slowly turning around to finally find all the lights out everywhere, a clear suspicion formed.

"Really...? An... An EMP?"

If it was actually true that a normal rock from space, more or less so, could have produced enough electromagnetic power to destroy or at least temporarily kill the electronics of an entire block, he did not know either. But that explanation seemed reasonably satisfying and the least confusing at that time. Still, this wasn't enough of an explanation for him to loosen up in any way.

 _But you're no normal rock, are you? Shit, what do I do now? What do I do? I can't just leave this thing here...  
_

The stone seemed to mock him with his presence, standing there silently with its blue glow. He spent seemingly an eternity in front of the rock and couldn't think of a single thing to do.

Hesitantly, then, seeing no other option but to give in to his curiosity, he decided to inspect the rock in more detail.

Slowly reaching out with his hand and touching it, he could instantly feel a strange, warm feeling entering his body. Almost like an indescribable amount of energy now flowing through him, his every single limb, hair and cell, and then back into the stone. An exchange, not of words but far more complicated things. It was indeed a feeling impossible to properly describe, but he didn't recoil from the stone. He embraced that feeling, he accepted this 'trade'.

He closed his eyes, lost in another realm for a moment, and muttered some inaudible words.

He had always been afraid to lose control. It had happened once, several years ago, after a few drinks too many. And then never again. And while, sure enough, he tried to be popular with the friends he had and never be a killjoy, that also never stopped him from the credo he was following with his mind.

Control. Control over his own body, mind and soul. His standpoint on that matter was clear. There were numerous substances that, in his eyes, weak-minded humans would consume in excess to escape the harsh reality of a brutal world, where everyone had to fight for their place with their wits and skills. He had a strong mind, however. He always accepted what life threw at him. And though the destination of his life was unclear to him, he knew exactly on what kind of path he would always stay and never stray from.

But at that moment, as he muttered a succession of words that came from the deepest corners of his soul to the strange rock, he truly reached an understanding like never before.

He had entirely lost control over his mind.

Before he could even come up with a conclusion on what he had just done, the flow of energy suddenly stopped and the rock seemed to glow even more aggressively, now almost intentionally blinding him. For another shocked blink of his eyes, his hand seemed to be glued to the rock, as if it was unwilling to let him go just yet. At this rapid change, the human forcefully and with all his power sprung back like the scared animal he was right now, detaching himself from that malicious rock, unfortunately also tripping over a large root.

Too shocked to react, too confused to prepare, he landed on his back...

 **Thud!**

...hitting his head with a dull sound on one of the numerous tall trees.

For just another second, the world seemed to spin around him as his body slowly, but forcefully, shut down his eyelids. His consciousness would follow. His heartbeat already decelerated. He could still make out the strange blue light changing to a deep red tone, as if foreboding his very doom, before the stone went pitch black.

Only darkness embraced his senses now as everything else slipped away.

* * *

 **So, this is the Prologue to what I hope will be an interesting piece to work on. Please do tell me what you think of this. :)**

 **And now, before we get into the actual story, if you would quickly like a _very_ rough description of the plot in Rhombus' first story, The Seven Hunters, this is it:**

 **It all started some time after the events of the TV series, so Ruby and Chomper were both living in the Great Valley and Red Claw was still terrorizing the Mysterious Beyond together with Thud and Screech. One day, however, a Stone of Cold Fire landed in the valley and the gang of seven wished for the power to defeat Red Claw upon the stone. The Stone proceeded to turn all of them except Chomper, obviously, into sharpteeth. Now five of the seven friends were fastbiters (feathered Utahraptors), and Petrie was a sharptooth flyer (Cearadactylus), and while they retained their colors, they got chased out of the valley as the residents thought they had killed the original children. A very dark journey full of hardships for the friends followed, but in the end they managed to defeat Red Claw and his minions in a final battle in the Great Valley. Many friendships, even alliances did the Seven Hunters forge on their way, but equally many lives were lost in the process.** **And yet, the same friends that used to live in the Great Valley became the stuff of legends among leaf-eaters and sharpteeth alike.  
After that, they started their new lives far away from the valley, and several years later they grew into a fine pack of fastbiters with their own children, still ready for new adventures, but just as many conflicts to fend off.  
**

 **This story starts at around this point, eight years after the events of The Seven Hunters.**

 ** _(Final Version)_**


	2. (Act I) Chapter 1: Arrival

**Act I: A New World  
**

 **Chapter 1: Arrival**

 ** _"People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes." - Neil Gaiman_**

 _Darkness. Same, but different. This time, the kind of darkness he could not perceive with his mere eyes. Only with his heart, his soul. The absence of everything. No light. No sound. No life. No hope._

 _Nothing._

 _For someone who had always felt safe in the dark, this truly was a horrifying experience. He was deeply lost in what seemed to be his mind, and his body would not obey him. He didn't even know if he still actually had a body, unable to see, hear or feel anything. It was frighteningly alike to how he imagined the final moments before dying. His non-existing body not reacting to his commands anymore and his mind slowly drifting into nothingness where the Grim Reaper would calmly wait to claim another soul for eternity._

 _How could it have come to this? What had he done wrong? Only two of far too many question he would have liked to ask.  
_

 _Then, suddenly, out of this pitch black realm, he could see a single beam of light. He could feel it. A feeling which originated from deep inside. Close and familiar, yet far away and foreign. But it was steadily drifting away from him. As if to mock him further still, a voice could be heard from the vast distance this world of darkness represented._

 _At first it was almost inaudible, but it grew louder with each repetition. Until it became a series of screams, violently accusing him and also answering why he found himself here now.  
_

 _ **"I want to be someone... change the world to a better place... and leave a legacy behind nobody will ever forget!"**_

 _That was his own voice. His own words. His last and perhaps only wish,_ _ _the fateful wish he hadn't exactly chosen to make upon this strange, blue glowing stone_. _

_Each time the voice repeated itself it felt like a needle stabbing his brain, his entire consciousness. Not the physical kind of pain that mended after a while but the psychological pain of realization that would scar one's mind forever. Like for a reputable human to ponder a serious wrongdoing, a heinous crime. Thoughts like these raced back and forth, cluttering this dark realm, forming no words, emotions or meanings at all._

 _This had to stop. This had to stop now._

 _With great trepidation, he finally worked up the courage to fight back against his own mind, to gain back control._

 _"Stop this already! STOP IT! SHUT UP! Get... OUT... of my head!"_

 _Distant laughter could be heard in response. But it was not an evil laugh or a laugh at the expense of his current state, rather an understanding laugh. A soothing, discipling laugh.  
_

 _"Is that really what you desire? You appear to be lost, young one."_

 _"Who...?! Who are you...? And where... Where am I?" He asked into the blackness, shocked that he had actually gotten a response, on top of that from someone who did not belong here.  
_

 _"At the end, it would seem." Came the calm reply.  
_

 _And it was at this point that he was sure he was dead, now only tricked by his mind for a few seconds as his brain shut down, leaving him hopeless and delusional, clinging to but his last few pitiful moments of what resembled life. What else could that voice have possibly meant?  
_

 _Still, despite the situation, he had to make sure of even something this obvious._

 _"Does that mean... I'm... I'm...?"_

 _"No. No, it does not." The voice answered, as if aware of his every question, as if still trying to calm him, as if delaying for the right moment to explain. "Endings are always beginnings, too. It is your decision, your choice now. To become what you want to be."_

 _The thoughts stopped racing immediately as this, possibly, female voice echoed inside his mind. He did not recognize that voice at all, nor did he even recognize the language it spoke or grasp why he assumed it to be female. But he could still understand it. And it felt warm, as if it was hope itself._

 _But who was it? Where did it come from? And why was it here? Why was all of this even happening?  
_

 _"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, annoyance at the voice's cryptic way of speaking carried by his query. "How am I supposed to decide anything when I don't even know where I am?! What is all this?!"  
_

 _The distant laughter could be heard again, again carrying a tone that could calm one's nerves._

 _"You will, soon enough. Because there are some things you see with your eyes, but others you see with your heart."_

 _Right away, he wanted to just dismiss that sentence and press on for an answer to his questions. But he had no time to do that, as the voice continued and quickly vanished into the distance, taking all the soothing light with it.  
_

 _"For now, you will just have to wake up. Wake up... Specter."_

* * *

He suddenly gasped for air, widely opened his eyes but instantly commanded his body to close them again as a massive headache set in. Then it was dark once more, silent once more, safe once more.

No use in looking around just yet, anyway. It seemed like he had hit his head with enough force to give him a serious concussion, so much so that it literally hurt to think, at the moment. Quite badly, too. And yet, he felt somewhat relieved. Everything would be alright, now that he was awake and out of this messed up dream. The pain was his confirmation. After all, he actually was still alive, air steadily filling and escaping his lungs...

Wet, almost tropically warm air. Extremely strange, given that it was quite cold at night by now. Or supposed to be, at any rate. Though, he didn't notice much of that yet in his dizziness.

 _Ugh... Ow... What happened? How long... did I pass out?  
_

The realization that he was back in control of his body and mind again made him feel a lot less stressed, and he was almost ready to work the situation out...

However, that feeling very quickly turned into utter horror, once the few breaths of air he had just inhaled were processed by his senses. Thousands upon thousands, millions even, of scents reached his olfactory center at once, afterwards his brain.

Scents of plants, scents of trees, scents of soil, scents of water, scents of dozens of unknown creatures, and...

 _What... is this?! Myself?! I can... I can smell myself this clearly?! I can smell... what I am?!  
_

Bombarded by all these neural stimuli, his brain was overloaded by the sheer onslaught of information it had not been prepared for, it could not handle just yet. His heart started pumping in a much higher frequency again, his muscles cramping over his entire body, causing even more pain. His initial attempt to calm down was now entirely futile.

At this point he could not take it anymore, lying prone on the ground, twitching heavily, having seemingly avoided almost certain death. And after a few more seconds, he felt nothing but absolute exhaustion and passed back out.

Before his actual eyelids closed, however, the bright moonlight revealed a set of piercing yellow orbs beneath the protective nictitating membranes that had covered his vision until now.

* * *

It wasn't until the moon had noticeably shifted in the sky that he finally started to come back to his senses again. Though he couldn't see that change in time, still keeping his eyes shut for now, unwilling to provoke a reaction from his body such as the one from earlier in the slightest. He didn't even dare to move a muscle. Too afraid was he to face such an immediate and painful backlash again.

 _Please... tell me it's over now...?_ He carefully thought, testing his mind first.

Nothing happened. He was in control once more. At least the pain in his head had disappeared.

 _Good... Argh! But everything else hurts! What in the name of sanity happened?! Why can I smell all these things now? Why is it so warm? And why...? No! No, calm down. Everything's alright. I just hit my head, that's all. Probably gave me a quite a bump, too... Alright... Take it easy... Just relax for a bit...  
_

He took a deep breath, a surprisingly long one at that, and then let out a deep sigh to recompose himself.

 **Grrrwl...**

However, instead of a sigh he knew, a deep growl filled his highly sensitive ears. His very own.

 _Uh, what? What?! Did I just... What the...?!_ _  
_

He couldn't finish his thoughts as his eyes sprang open in shock.

And what he now could do was see absolutely everything clearly and sharply, his vision tinted in a greenish-white tone, even though it was darker than before, the moon covered by thick clouds. But most noticeable to him was that he did not wear his glasses anymore, unable to feel any kind of pressure on his face or have blurry peripheral vision.

He had naturally perfect eyesight, in addition to the ability to see at night.

 _Oh, no... No. No. No. This is not how it works!_ _ _Argh..._ I must be hallucinating... ___But even then... where are all the trees?!_ Just... where am I?!  
_

He had been lying on his side up until now, so he didn't get a glance at his own body just yet, which didn't really intrigue him thus far.

Why would it, anyway? He could still feel his two arms and two legs, fingers and toes still attached to his hands and feet. So what could have possibly changed? Although, now that he had questioned this, quite a few things with his limbs felt a little bit odd all of a sudden, he was sure to be just imagining that. Of course he was just imagining all of this. How would it be possible for a human to see in the night, smell so many different things and only have control over three fingers and three toes each? Not to mention waking up having 'magically' lost all clothes, the warm air gently stroking his naked body. He deemed the idea alone so highly preposterous, he could not even have laughed at his own inanity.

At least until, with deliberately slow movement, he extended his arms and tried to use his hands to push himself up from the ground...

 **Thud!**

"Ow! What the hell?!"

Only to find out that his hands were not usable for such tasks anymore, both his forelimbs entirely giving in under his weight, making him lose his grip in the mud below and fall right back down again.

 _Argh... Damn... No, something's really, really wrong... I feel so... heavy... And... my arms... Did I break my...? No... But, I... I can't pronate them anymore! But what about my..._

And it was only now that he flexed his neck around to get a look at his legs that he first laid eyes on what he had missed out on. Slowly, piece by piece, he tried to make sense of what he saw.

 _Woah! Feathers...?! Claws...?! A... A fricking tail?!_

At the moment it was too dark for him to actually make out the colors and all the 'utilities' his body had, but it was already enough to hint at what he now was. Had he paid more attention to what had reached his ears after hitting the ground, not actual words but instead a series of angry growls and snarls, he would've come to the same conclusion nonetheless.

Violently, he raised his arms and stared at his three-fingered hands, then back at his lower body only to stare at his hands once more. In this shocked pose he remained, second after second, until he fully realized...

 _Feathers... long tail... three fingers... sickle claws... I... am... a raptor?! A dinosaur?!  
_

Heavy pounding in his chest. Numbness in his head. The feeling of immense heat everywhere. Panic was starting to set in. So he tried to organize his mind as best as he could and calm down at least a little bit.

 _Ok...Ok...Ok. Let's be reasonable. Stuff like that doesn't happen. It just doesn't... I shouldn't be... I mean... Hell, these dinosaurs are dead for at least 65 million years! And even if they weren't, you don't just turn into... Wait. No, no, wait a second...  
_

His head was wrapped in silence at the dawning realization. There was only one possible way how this could have happened.

 _Blue... Blue... light..._

The memory had finally come back to him. It made him shudder, convulse, breathe heavily...

"THAT BLOODY STONE!" He screamed in rage, slamming his clawed forelimb into the mud. But as a few splats of wet soil flew past his head, reminding him very well of the new environment he must've been in now, he immediately shut his mouth tight after that infuriated outburst.

Too little, too late, however. He only just noticed what he had done, but his angry, piercing shriek already echoed through the air and deep into the night.

 _Oh damn... Ah, shit! S_ _houldn't have done that..._

* * *

 **Screech!**

The adult male fastbiter, brown feathers covering his body, a blood-red crest on his head, neck and tail, stopped his motion in surprise and looked in the general direction of the faint, distant shout. He couldn't make out the meaning it carried, but it was immediately clear to him that this had been a sharptooth scream, most likely from another fastbiter, containing as much anger as despair. Instinctively, he continued to listen closely into the night, trying to make out any following utterances.

None came. Only the rustling of leaves and bushes could be heard behind him, but that seemed to elude his senses at the time.

"Seeker!"

Having been completely distracted by the screech, he momentarily jumped into a stance of aggression before quickly relaxing again, realizing that this voice now had come from a much closer fastbiter. A fastbiter he knew all too well, one who had accompanied him for many seasons and also on this small routine tonight.

"Damn it, Taunt!" He growled, somewhat angry with himself to have dropped his guard that easily. "Cut it out and come over here already."

"What? Oh, don't tell me... Did I _scare_ our great leader?"

Upon saying this, a smaller, orange-colored fastbiter, lacking any feathering, with tell-tale black stripes over his whole body strutted into the open.

"Yup, I sure did." Taunt continued, a wide smirk visible on his face and through his raised tail. He dropped that stance, though, as he moved next to his leader and presented his hand to him. More precisely, what he was holding in it. A whole bunch of plants, glowing in a prominent orange tone. "Alright, alright. No more of that... _For tonight_. Here, I found these..."

"Later." The brown fastbiter cut in, letting nothing but equanimity surface, looking only in the distance. "Did you notice that, too?"

"Besides you jumping like a one-legged swimmer after _they_ notice Path is after them...? Uh, no." Taunt replied plainly, flashing his teeth once again.

Ignoring his packmate's try to make a fool out of him, the brown fastbiter didn't even give Taunt the satisfaction of the stern look he seemed to so much desire. Instead, he spoke with a grave voice.

"Taunt? Head back to the pack. There is something I will have to check out. Just... let me take one with me, will you?"

"Seeker..." The orange fastbiter hesitantly started with a now honestly concerned undertone in his voice, knowing that something was wrong. His leader must've indeed picked up something vitally important that he didn't notice while moving through the bushes. And that he desired to take even a single one of those sinister plants with him foreboded serious trouble. They may have looked like ordinary flowers, uninteresting and harmless, beautiful to look at even, but the name given to them by the few individuals who knew of their capabilities already told everything one needed to know.

"Trust me on this." The brown fastbiter explained himself, making eye contact. "I want to have a quick look around the faraway watering hole. That's just inside our territory; I highly doubt anyone is going to be audacious enough to disrespect this, but... you can never be too careful with such things."

"But..." Taunt then spoke, overwhelmed and confused by the whole situation. "Shouldn't I... come with you, then? What is even going on?"

"No. You know that any kind of sharptooth will easily be able to smell us out carrying _this_ amount of the Orange Death, and I don't want it lying around here either. Both would be highly irresponsible and, frankly, quite foolish." The leader stated quickly, but calmly. He knew that he had ignored Taunt's second question, but he didn't want to give an answer on something he didn't know himself just yet. "No, you head back to the others and stash it away. I will handle this myself until I've made sure... It's probably nothing of importance, but I'd like to investigate personally this time before risking another... incident. We've had enough of those in the past..."

He offered the orange fastbiter a slight, but friendly and confident smile, to which he could only nod. As Taunt then slowly handed his leader one good sample of the many orange flowers he held in his claws, he was about to express his concerns for this whole situation once more, now in his usual fashion again, but the brown fastbiter spoke first.

"This will do. Thanks. And don't inform the others about this yet, should they still be awake. If they are, well, it would not be a lie if you told them that I am going for a drink and will be back shortly." He paused, thinking about if he wanted to leave it at that or go one step further. He decided to do so, for the sake of full disclosure. "But, still, stay alert. If you hear my call, or I'm not back within reasonable time, don't hesitate to alarm everyone. Even split, Path counting. Assume big trouble. Got it?"

Taunt was taken aback by the seriousness in his leader's tone and thus decided not to disobey him in any way possible. He knew him long enough to trust in his almost every decision, and it sounded like he had a solid enough plan. Though he was still highly discomforted.

But, on the surface, not even this did stop Taunt from being who he simply was, of course.

"Understood. Well, see you in a bit then, _Littlefoot_! In a _bit_ , not _bits_. As in, don't let yourself get eaten, flathead."

Taunt made sure he put special weight on his leader's old leaf-eater name and the insult for Littlefoot's former species, a flat-headed longneck, allowing himself one last smirk before he disappeared in the bushes again.

Littlefoot smiled for a while too before his face took on a contemplative expression.

 _That's a lot of taunts, even for him. Bad ones, too... Bit and bits...? Huh, he really didn't like this... And neither do I, honestly..._

But he would have none of it if some outsiders just wandered into his pack's territory. They would have to leave or die, whichever way they preferred. Given his pack's reputation, most likely the non-violent way. However, he also understood that he could very well be dealing with a lone fastbiter. That certainly was no seldom occurrence in the first few cycles of the Night Circle after a warm time and, consecutively, mating season.

And a lone fastbiter often was a dangerous fastbiter, often driven by desperation, frustration, or generally dangerous and reckless intentions.

But perhaps that lone fastbiter never actually intended to violate the territory. Perhaps they only wanted to have a quick, sneaky drink and then leave again even quicker. Not exactly a smart or decent thing to do, very provocative indeed, but not unforgivable or worthy of a violent approach either.

 _At least if they don't try that again. There are enough watering holes in unclaimed land... But why the screech then? Why make so much noise? No, it can't be that simple... Something's off..._

Or was it a trap? Was he about to be successfully lured into a cowardly ambush? Pretty much everyone in the vast lands around knew this was his pack's territory, thus giving the entire area a wide berth out of sheer respect, but this amount of renown went both ways among sharpteeth. He was sure there were some few who would've liked to claim his head just to appear fearsome.

 _But I could think of far better ways to do so... Making noise like that... This is just... stupid... Hmm, still, I should've asked him to rally the others right away... Then again, a single fastbiter is a hidden fastbiter... And if Ponder or Stern Claw got wind of this so soon... Yeah, I'll have to figure this out alone, first... This doesn't feel like the problems we usually have to deal with... So I will not deal with it how we usually do... Gee, thinking of Ponder, huh...  
_

His calculating mind, the mind of an experienced predator, broke Littlefoot out of his pondering. It really was pointless thinking out a big plan now, or mobilizing the pack, when he didn't know exactly what was going on. Far too risky, and there never was an easy way to solve problems with trespassers in a territory as large as this. Cover one flank, open up another. The pack would never be completely safe from such sudden dangers.

He was still determined to get to the bottom of this, as quickly as possible. Regardless of their intentions, good or neutral or bad, he would find out who that intruder in the distance was and would see them to leave, should they have decided to further disrespect the territory. Preferably in peace, without any confrontation at all.

But, one could never be too careful, he thought again, looking at the single orange flower he held tightly in his claws.

It was actually quite amusing, in some way. In his long past leaf-eater days he could have certainly seen himself offering the dinosaur in the distance a place among his friends. At least they happened to be another leaf-eater, a bothtooth at most. Though, honestly, perhaps even a sharptooth, depending on what kind of sharptooth. It wasn't remotely unusual for him to forge unusual friendships, after all.

But such a thing was unheard of for a sharptooth to do, especially for a fastbiter and pack leader such as himself, since the whole concept of a pack was based on trust.

It didn't work that easily. He couldn't just offer anyone who crossed his path to join. And not only because his pack already was large in numbers, _too_ large in fact, but rather because a pack consisted of more than just friends. A pack was a family. A family which someone joined for life and left in death, or only with the very best of reasons. Not that it mattered much in this case, but he always liked to remind himself of that, of what capable and loyal friends he was surrounded by every day.

For now, though, he was alone. And he simply had to act.

 _Now then... Let's find out who you are and what you want... I just hope this doesn't end in another confrontation...  
_

With all the speed he could muster he sprinted off, into the night and towards the source of the shout. He only left the wind in his wake.

* * *

 _Ok... One weird theropod foot after the other... Man, this is just... Argh! Come on, I know how dinosaurs walked! Kinda... There we go... Steady... Steady... Tail straight, even steps... Stay on track..._

The tall raptor was relatively quickly getting accustomed to his new body. Even though a challenge like this was far beyond anything he could have ever imagined, and he was rather staggering as if moderately intoxicated than actually walking in a straight line, he was doing pretty well, he deduced.

In his eyes, at least. To an actual dinosaur, predator or prey, he must've looked like a bad joke, however.

His head bobbing around in a weird fashion as he tried to adapt to the stabilization natural to even the ancestors of birds, his long tail frequently hitting the ground as he tried to adapt to having control over an entirely new body part, his sickle claws sometimes raised and sometimes lowered as he tried to adapt to having these two toes constantly retracted off the ground...

And these were only the things he noticed himself. Surely, there were many more to another observer. Regardless, he tried to be positive about this and feel relief that he had actually managed to even stand up and move around.

 _Hm... Well, that's no wonder, really. I walked on two feet before. Just... not on my toes like that, with my head like this and my back like so, and... I guess I just need to use that tail more..._

He didn't yet have the precise control over his tail he needed to use it as a counterweight and rudder, which would have greatly improved his movement capabilities, but he was getting there. Ever so slowly, only daring to test moving it around when standing still for a few seconds, but steadily.

 _Whatever, I can practice later... Right now, I really need to get away from there... No telling what I might've attracted... Last thing I need is ending this damn night as dinner...  
_

After around ten minutes of movement, technically 'fleeing' from the place were he had awoken, he promptly decided that it was time to get something to drink. His throat felt dry, and something from deep inside told him that it would not be a good idea to continue exploring with a dry throat.

Despite his species, being one of the most cunning and fearsome carnivores ever now, he would not be as intimidating if he couldn't let out a dangerous roar or a frightening shriek.

 _Uh... Wait... Where did that come from? Why... did I think of this so specifically?_

The thoughts inside his mind started racing again as he abruptly stopped walking, but with a quick shake of his head they were gone as quickly as they had come.

 _Doesn't matter. I'm just really thirsty. And, come to think of it... a bit hungry, too... Figures... Would've been too much to ask for that goddamn stone to at least leave me with some food and water in my body, right? Urgh... Well, let's see if that new nose of mine can lead me to some water..._

 **Sniff. Sniff. Sniff.  
**

 _Hmm... Is that... what water really smells like? Seems like it. I guess I'll see... Doesn't 'smell' far away...  
_

With that, he started moving again through this prehistoric land, and despite his horrendously slow pace for a dromaeosaur it didn't take him long to find the source of the scent he followed. The scent of clean water was something deeply refreshing, something that made him cool down inside even thinking about it.

Coming to a halt before his destination, he relaxed noticeably. His incredible sense of smell had led him to a sizeable pond, which was connected to a tiny waterfall by a short torrent that disappeared under a small rock formation some distance away. A beautiful little place, all in all. He didn't care much about the beauty of it, though, as he ran as fast as he could with his new body and immersed himself in the fresh, reasonably cool water. However, as much as he would have liked to clean himself first, quenching his thirst had a much bigger priority.

And that's right where the next problems started coming up, when he simply tried to drink. Awkwardly having almost all the water escape from his oral cavity he quickly came to realize that he was not able to drink anymore like he had been able to as a human.

 _Ah, yeah... right... I have a snout now... or beak... No actual lips... Can't even move my jaw left or right..._

So he carefully imitated how he had seen dinosaurs drink in documentaries or movies, or even the casual bird. Lowering his muzzle into the water, using his long tongue to guide it into his mouth, and then tilting his head backwards to swallow it down. A lengthy process that cost him a lot of nerves, but ultimately satisfying nonetheless. It felt like a soothing eternity to him, just taking sip after sip of this life essence and feeling the cool sensation wash off the dirt most of his feathers had been covered with after lying in the mud for so long.

 _There... Much better. That's the easy part done..._

It was only when he was finished drinking and swiftly washing himself that another thought crossed his mind.

 _Ok, now... How exactly do I look like? What... I suppose, genus, exactly, am I now?  
_

Carefully, he left the water, gave his soaked feathers a few clumsy shakes and waited for the mostly clear liquid to settle down again so that he could get a good look at himself. He now realized that the moon hung noticeably lower in the sky, giving the light a near perfect path to create the desired reflection on the water surface, despite some mud tainting it. It also made him finally see a few glimpses of his new colors. Or rather _the_ color, as his feathers only had one real color.

And, as shocking as it was to see his new self for the first time, he definitely had to admit that even for the standards of 'raptors' he knew from movies, books and cartoons, he looked pretty imposing.

Black protofeathers covered almost the entirety of his body except of his snout and lower legs, black scutes protecting his feet, and he had a very distinctive golden crest running down from his head, neck and back to about half of his tail, ending in a horizontally spread-out feathering at his tail's tip. His forelimbs were plumed too, long black feathers with golden outlines cresting his 'wings'.

Though, he took the biggest interest in his new size.

He was positively massive, for all he knew. Around four heads taller than the already 194cm tall human he used to be, giving him a new height of what appeared to be between two and a half and three meters, 275cm to his back to be exact, with a length of just over ten meters when fully stretching out his neck, overall making him probably almost twenty times as heavy now, too, he estimated.

 _So... Taking into consideration this shouldn't even be sodding possible in the first place... Looks like I'm a... I'm a Utahraptor now. A pretty damn big one, I guess... Huh... I suppose I can live with that, but... God, there's nothing left! How in the world did this happen? I don't... I... Well... Looks like I kind of maintained my 'hair' color... That's something...  
_

He tried to smile a little bit as he eyed his crest feathers. His smile immediately fell, however. And not only because all of his momentarily exposed teeth had communicated anything but a happy smile, but also as something at the back of his mind forced him to assess the situation in more detail. The very 'something' that had reminded him of his dire need for some water earlier, only now it was even clearer.

 _Imposing? Yeah right... I can't even walk straight, don't know what is going on and I'm alone out here. What the hell am I supposed to do now? Claim a territory? Hunt...? Raptors are pack animals. I don't stand a chance alone... Not me... Oh, but, sure, anyone will take me in! And anyone else will tremble before my feathery arse! Argh! It's no use... I'll have to get used to this body as quickly as possible... And then I'll have to find something to eat, soon... But... what? I guess, maybe after a night's sleep I could search for..._

But his somewhat sarcastic self-reflection stopped in a heartbeat as his nose suddenly picked up a faint, but very pungent scent. A scent that was completely unfamiliar to him, unfamiliar to his old human and new raptor self. He couldn't even remotely come up with anything to compare it to, like he had been able to with 'basic' smells of trees and water which appeared to just come natural to him. Only, perhaps, he deduced that it could be another plant of some sort.

A plant whose scent burned in his nostrils, almost painfully so, despite it appearing to only be present in a very small amount.

 _Hm? What's this now...? What is...?  
_

He sniffed the air another few times, aimlessly turning on the spot, trying to find out where exactly the scent originated from. It didn't work. He couldn't narrow it down. The harder he tried to find the source, the more confusing it got. It appeared to be coming from every direction now. No matter how sophisticated his new sense of smell, he was too unused to such precise tasks. And it did not help at all that he was still on the verge of a mental breakdown, after all these events within the last few hours.

One thing he was certain about, however.

 _That... almost smells... toxic. But..._ _ _where is it coming from? And_ why the hell can I smell a...?_

That was when, for a fraction of a second, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something in the many bushes all around. Two lights, glowing reflections of the moonlight. And just as he had processed that, these two glowing marbles disappeared again.

Instantly, he froze in his perplexed stance.

 _Was that... a pair of...?_

"H-Hello...? Is... Is someone there...?" He sputtered, shivering in discomfort and, frankly, immense fear.

The situation had indeed gotten from just being utterly surreal to a proper life and death scenario so fast, he did not remotely know how to react to any of this. There he stood, frozen like a big, dumb feathery statue, the stinging scent of 'something' nearby, together with what was surely another predatory creature from this time. Whatever happened now, it would be completely out of his hands. And so, numbed by fear, exhaustion and lack of any kind of understanding...

He waited.

* * *

"Damn it! Too slow..." Littlefoot angrily hissed.

By quite possibly one of the worst occurrences of bad luck he had ever had in his lives as a fastbiter _and_ longneck, a Sky Puffy had suddenly moved faster than anticipated, allowing the bright light of the Night Circle to illuminate his eyes just as that stranger looked in his general direction, and before he could pull back his head. Then again, that stranger had impressively enough picked up the scent of the Orange Death before that already, despite the minimal amount. Perhaps it really had been a foolish idea to apply the deadly sap onto his claws, thus amplifying the scent, before any kind of engagement, Littlefoot quickly thought.

Still, none of the would-have-beens or might-have-beens could be of any consolation to him. He knew from experience that there was no such thing as a completely foolproof plan, and this only confirmed it once more. Either way, he now had to resort to his backup plan, rather similar to his 'emergency plan' which involved alerting the pack by letting out the call for danger. There was no other option.

He had to reveal himself to this outsider head-on and show dominance.

Anything else would definitely result in a violent outcome. No one liked to be toyed with, certainly not sharpteeth, and it was in every single case better to get one's point and message across directly, if necessary. Clear stances were always preferable. But, he needed to be very careful regardless. He still did not know exactly what that interloper was doing here, if they were truly alone or what their next move involved, after all. And, perhaps most importantly, since the stranger had just taken a rather extensive bath, Littlefoot had no scents to pick up and analyze, hence he was not even able to determine if this was a male or female fastbiter. The size of this unknown fastbiter and them standing downwind added to the equation truly turned this into a highly volatile situation.

He was at a definite disadvantage. What that stranger had in sheer magnitude and positioning, though, Littlefoot had on his claws in form of the Orange Death. For the time being, this would be enough leverage to negate everything against him.

 _I hope it's enough to fully deter them... I don't wish death by this stuff on anyone... Here goes...  
_

It was only now, with a made up mind, that he abruptly jumped out of his cover and into the clearing, letting the light of the Night Circle deliberately illuminate his brown feathers, red crest and glowing red eyes. The stranger let out an audible gasp and did little else but stare at him as Littlefoot finally revealed himself in all his menacingness and slowly began his approach, an emotionless look on his face and the Orange Death on his claws. Not out for blood, but for answers.

For now.

* * *

Taunt's gaze sunk, slowly, from the skies until it met the green-eyed look of his yellow-feathered mate in front of him. Things just could not ever go smoothly and silently in this pack, he figured, with an expectant sigh already leaving his mouth. He liked it this way, of course. On most occasions. After all, he was so often the very reason for this special alacrity not many other fastbiter packs possessed.

Though, sometimes, this was also to his detriment.

 _"Then why me see Seeker heading towards loud sharptooth shout?"_

As the pack's designated flyer's words, which came right after Taunt had finished relaying to his mate what Littlefoot told him, echoed in his ears once more, he knew that this was one of those times.

Now, he knew just too well what would be coming next...

 _Oh, well, it was about time again anyway._ Taunt briefly thought.

"He did WHAT?!" His mate yelled in indignation, quite her usual manner.

Everyone in the pack trusted Littlefoot with their lives, but that did not mean he was completely infallible, let alone untouchable. And ever since that one time, long ago, where he had decided to reveal his change into a sharptooth to his father all by himself, without any help from his pack, without wanting them to even know about it to be exact, he rarely tried something this bold without his pack's consent again.

Until now, apparently. Which made a certain female, Littlefoot's effective second-in-command and one of his longest-time friends, rather unpleased.

"What the crap were you thinking, following that order?! You're damn lucky the others are already sleeping! Ponder would've slapped the stripes off your ass!"

"Aw, come on!" Taunt retorted, acting as if actually offended by what defined his entire relationship with her. "The heck was I supposed to do? I asked to come with him but he was so concerned about the..."

"You should be concerned about my claws if you don't turn right back now and show me where he went off to!"

"Alright, alright! I'll show you... But, if we find out there was nothing to all this..." He demonstratively leaned forwards so much that his snout touched hers for a moment, smirking deviously. Deep inside of him there was perhaps still a hint of concern and doubt in Littlefoot's plan, but when confronted by his mate like that Taunt just couldn't help himself keeping it all buried. "You better prepare for the coming days, _dear_."

"Hmpf!" Was everything the female gave in dismissive response as she easily pushed her mate back and snorted hot air in his face. She couldn't care less if Taunt made her life more difficult than it ever should be with his constant pranks, over the next time. Not when, in her mind, the leader of their pack had once more engaged in a horrendously dumb undertaking.

She then nodded forwards and gestured for the hovering flyer above to provide assistance as well. There was no further discussion, perfect consensus. Right after that wordless order, the three pack members swiftly moved out.

* * *

 _What are you doing? Don't stand there like that! Yield! I don't want to use this stuff on you!_

With every slow step in his combat posture Littlefoot was getting closer and closer to the black fastbiter. And with each step, he felt more and more uncomfortable. He had expected a lot of things to happen, everything from attack to escape and in between, yet for the stranger to not react at all...

Something was indeed very off here. But he was curious now. Extremely cautious, but nonetheless curious. And when he finally stopped, around half his own length away from the stranger, even his last thought about a potential fight was gone. Only at this close distance he could finally pick up some of the scents and see why the black fastbiter, another male, acted this way.

He was shaking ever so slightly, petrified with fear, clawed forelimbs held close to his body and sickle claws almost buried in the ground. This whole stance looked not even submissive, but utterly helpless, almost as if that sharptooth had hatched this very night, had never seen another one of his kind before.

However, Littlefoot would certainly not drop his guard at the sight of those silly antics. Curious as he may have been now, it just did not make any sense. Before him stood a full-grown fastbiter who was even bigger than him, in every aspect. Bigger claws, bigger teeth, et cetera. And he knew what that meant. Bigger meant more dangerous. It was just how things worked with sharpteeth. There was a reason why two-footers were the unchallenged, and often most dangerous, rulers throughout the lands.

He decided to try and provoke a reaction, give the stranger one last chance to explain himself before he would have to face more drastic measures. And when Littlefoot took another daunting step in his direction, the other fastbiter flinched heavily, almost falling over, and finally spoke up.

"Please... I... Don't kill me... I don't know... I..."

Littlefoot was seriously taken aback by this kind of response. That, coming from the massive fastbiter, was honest fear and terror through his shaky voice and widely opened eyes.

 _He's... afraid of me? That much?_ He quickly noted to himself, but he still wanted an answer as to why this sharptooth had invaded his pack's territory like that.

"Who are you? And what are you doing in our territory? Answer me!" He demanded from the stranger in a grave tone, raising a foot. This was to show off his claws and to indicate that he would be about to come closer, should he not receive a satisfactory answer.

A short while of silence followed, in which the black fastbiter audibly gulped before opening his mouth again. He seemed not even to notice that obvious threat display from Littlefoot.

"I... I don't know! I... kind of... just... woke up nearby... and..."

"Stop lying to me!" Came Littlefoot's immediate, angered response. "That was your voice earlier, wasn't it? Now, what are you still doing in our territory? Answer! I won't ask again."

Having said that he finished his move from earlier, coming closer to the other sharptooth. Now he was within range of a lethal attack. One jump, and it would be over for the interloper.

"No! Please! You have to believe me! I'm... I'm sorry if I'm in your territory! I will leave! I didn't mean to be here! Just... please don't kill me! I... I don't know how I got here! The..." He paused again, very briefly, hectically searching his stressed mind for something to say. He found nothing reasonable or logical. Only the highly ridiculous truth, or at least what he remembered as the truth. Even that was possibly some insane hallucination, at this point. As he spoke up, he was almost sure that these would be his last few words. "The... The last thing I remember is that I touched some sort of... some sort of... glowing stone."

Littlefoot instantly hopped back to a more safe distance for both of them and lowered his claws, tilting his head slightly.

"What...? Explain. What 'glowing stone'?"

"A meteorite! It... It fell from the sky and... I touched it and... then I woke up here... like _this_... I know, this must sound..."

"Did it glow blue?" Littlefoot interrupted the stranger. He had no clue what a 'meteorite' was specifically, but he did understand what the stranger had meant with that word. He did know all too well.

"It... Hey... Yes, how did you know that?" The black fastbiter responded in massive surprise.

Littlefoot almost fainted after hearing this. He saw his whole life flash before his eyes. His happy days as a little longneck together with his four leaf-eater friends, those being a threehorn, a swimmer, a flyer and a spiketail, and then his two friends with the opposite tendency, namely a two-footer youngling and a fastrunner, right up until now where he was the leader of a fastbiter pack with the exact same six friends, many more companions and even their own children.

Except that everyone was a sharptooth now. And that had all started with a wish on a blue glowing stone. The Stone of Cold Fire. And also, it was only now that he consciously realized that the big fastbiter had feathers, just like himself and those of his friends that had been changed by the Stone.

"You... are not the only one with wishes... Sit. We need to talk." He finally offered.

The black fastbiter gasped again, this time out of surprise, but obeyed without hesitation, laid down on his haunches and shifted uneasily on his behind, which made Littlefoot faintly raise his tail in amusement.

 _That... looks familiar... It's been a long time since that day..._ He thought to himself as he sat down as well.

"Tell me about it. All of it. How did that happen to you?"

The stranger took a deep breath and began to retell what had happened to him over the last few hours, although there wasn't really much to say.

* * *

"If anything's happened to him, I swear, Taunt, I'm going to rip your spleen out. For real, this time!"

"Relax! You honestly think someone would scream to announce an attack in the night? No need to worry, I'm telling you!"

"For your own sake, I hope so! Now shut up and move!"

"Bah! You started it!"

* * *

"... and then... I woke up from that dream, here. In... your territory, it seems. I... was a raptor and my head felt like it had been hit by a mountain... and when I started smelling things it knocked me right back out. I've never experienced anything like it. I... came back to my senses to the sight of the moon, and then couldn't even walk properly. I mean, I used to walk on two legs but... not like _this_ , you know?"

Although he still kept a safe distance to the stranger and was ready for potentially anything, Littlefoot was highly intrigued by now. For these words were solid evidence that he couldn't be lying. Nobody that did not have their life twisted around like he and his friends had would know what this had been like. The black fastbiter had used some rather strange words like 'meteorite', 'raptor', 'dream' or 'moon', which could've been so much easier spoken as 'flying rock', 'fastbiter', 'sleep story' or 'Night Circle', but he didn't pay that much heed.

After all, the change to the predator Littlefoot now was went pretty much exactly like that, so he let him continue.

"But... I think all of this is a big problem. This... This is a mistake. I shouldn't be here. I don't even know how I got here, but if this place is what I think it is, I'm a... huge danger. And since I don't think there happens to be... like... a time machine around..."

"Whoa, slow down now. I understand that you appear to talk differently than others here, but now you're not even making sense. Why are you a danger? And what is this 'time' thing?" Littlefoot asked in confusion. "Actually sounds like something the rainbowfaces would say..."

The addition to his sentence was more muttered to himself than actually spoken aloud, but the black fastbiter seemed to have heard it regardless.

"Well, that's hard to explain, but... Wait... Uhm, if you don't mind, what are 'rainbowfaces'?"

"A rainbowface is a rainbowface." Littlefoot said while tilting his head again, asking himself how the stranger could not understand this simple name for a very common and widespread kind of dinosaur. "They're good friends of us, incredibly smart, although nobody really understands them. They are star people, after all."

"'Star people'?" The black Utahraptor thought aloud, unable to suppress a little chuckle. At least until he realized that the brown Utahraptor must have been quite serious with his statement. And this made him realize something else. If it was actually true what the other raptor had said, those 'rainbowfaces' could very well be the solution to his predicament. He didn't exactly believe in 'aliens' in the classic sense, but since he was already talking to a dinosaur, a dinosaur who appeared to have a history himself with the same stone he had encountered, he figured that his past judgement on those things would have to make way. "You're serious? Is there... Is there a chance for me to meet them? I... I just have to!"

Littlefoot could only muster him in a mix of disbelief and surprise.

* * *

"Me see them!"

"Them?! Who exactly?!"

"It Seeker! He not hurt! But... there be other sharptooth! Big sharptooth!"

* * *

"Listen, this is not that easy. You would have to travel to the Valley, quite a ways away from here. And then you'd still have to learn leaf-eater. Unless you'd like to get stomped by the residents as soon as they spot you. They don't really like sharpteeth. Why do you want to talk to them anyway? You don't even know them or what they are, I see. And neither do they know you."

 _Leaf-eater? He's talking about that as if it was some sort of language... I guess it is. So... we're talking... 'sharptooth' right now then, I assume? Carnivore language?_ The black raptor quickly thought about the other male's words.

"You, uh, could just teach me that 'leaf-eater' and show me the way to that... 'Valley', couldn't you? Or know someone who could? And, well... I'd like to meet them because, uhm... Uh... Ah, forget it. Too complicated to explain. It doesn't really matter for now..." He answered in a depressed tone, as he was far too aware that a mere dinosaur would never be able to understand his past life, nor would it be able to understand that a mass extinction would sometime 'soon' occur. But surely those rainbowfaces would, whatever they actually were. However, there was another problem. And this one was far more immediate. "But... If this isn't too much to ask... I think I need your help for now. I am... was... not exactly a trained hunter, so, uhm... Yeah..."

Littlefoot's mouth hung wide agape after hearing all this, but before he could even think about giving an answer, loud rustling could be heard from behind him.

Just moments later, the black raptor had yet another rather unsettling sight to behold. A brown Cearadactylus male hovered above the brown raptor's head now, its talons extended and ready to engage, and two other Utahraptors, an orange male with black stripes, surprisingly without any feathering whatsoever, and a yellow female with an orange crest, took defensive positions to either side of the dinosaur who had found him.

All three of them looked at him with the highest of intensities. The air suddenly got too thick to cut.

"Well, looks like someone just could not help herself..." Littlefoot immediately spoke up, in a faintly jocular fashion. He followed this up by tapping on the ground with his tail, signaling for the others to stand down. "He isn't dangerous. At ease."

Everyone kept glaring at the black raptor for a while longer, claws still raised. To him, though, it felt like he already had their combined weaponry at his throat. This did not get better when the female raptor stepped forward and exchanged a long series of looks with the brown-feathered male. And the only thing he retorted with was a single nod, before he turned back to the black ball of feathers, who at this point really had nothing more to say for himself. On top of everything, he was now forced to wonder if the brown raptor even had the rank to give out orders. For all he knew, the female here could've been the actual pack leader, or at least the one with the highest authority. She certainly had the qualifications, just by judging her whole demeanor, he figured.

And then it all went really fast. The yellow raptor moved back, next to the orange male, the brown male standing up. The black raptor remained prone as three Utahraptors and a Cearadactylus mustered him, remaining silent. He closed his eyes, shivering again. This couldn't be good...

"Please excuse my friends, but you're not exactly a calming sight to encounter in the night. At least, when one does not know you. Speaking of which, perhaps we should get acquainted now, shouldn't we? Welcome to the Lowlands. I am Seeker." Littlefoot then officially introduced himself to the stranger, keeping his head high but nevertheless offering a customary nod.

The black raptor's eyes had already sprung open again, but even that didn't help him grasp that his end shouldn't be here and now after all.

"Me Spotter! Greetings!" Then came the disciplined, yet nonetheless happy introduction from the flyer, Petrie, who seemed to have relaxed every single muscle in his body after hearing his leader's assessment.

The yellow fastbiter was next to react. She, on the other hand, didn't act quite as friendly, instead letting out an annoyed grunt. It was quite easily discernible that she didn't really like 'acting nice' in front of newcomers.

"Stern Claw." Cera offered in a simplistic manner, her yellow feathers still puffed up to make her appear larger. She then took it on herself to proceed, as she gestured at the orange fastbiter to her left. "And that insufferable ankle-biter is Taunt."

"You two... are mates, am I right...?"

The black raptor only noticed the possible insult in that when his tongue had already slipped. For another moment, the air around him heated up to painful levels. But as soon as he saw and heard Littlefoot and Petrie chuckle mildly, as best as he could interpret their reactions, he knew that comments like these wouldn't get him killed just yet.

And Littlefoot swore never to forget the looks on Taunt's and Cera's faces alike. He certainly appreciated the quick uptake and sheer guts on this black fastbiter, even if this comment had been nothing more than a thought that left his stressed mind unfiltered. Regardless, he gave both of their flanks a mild prod with his tail to ensure tranquility. This done, he focused back on the stranger.

"So, this leaves you. What's your name?"

This question, probably the simplest question of them all, hit the black raptor harder than any of Littlefoot's interrogatories earlier. He tried to tell them his name. His old name. His human name. The name that had accompanied him for over 20 years across multiple countries and pronunciations.

But he couldn't.

He had quickly settled with the fact that he was now able to speak in an alien language by default, which seemed to be the language shared by all carnivores. And his thoughts were mostly untouched by this, there was no constant growling, hissing and snarling in his mind. However, for some odd reason he could not pronounce own name. It was like he never knew it. He couldn't even think of it.

Hesitantly, after helplessly looking at everyone in the forlorn quest for an answer, he spoke again.

"I... I... I don't know."

"Oh, for...! Please, not another one like..." Came the groaned response from Cera before another nudge from Littlefoot's tail silenced her outburst. The particular glider she meant by that was simply not worth her nerves anyway, she figured in hindsight.

But the black raptor didn't react to that, still searching through his mind for who he really was. It was only now, when tried to search in his more recent memories, that he recalled the strange voice that had appeared in his dream. That voice had definitely called him by a name, though certainly not the one he used to carry.

 _What did it say again?_

"But... you could call me... Specter. It's... It's an honor to meet all of you." He respectfully finished once he remembered.

 _Specter... I'll have to get used to that...  
_

* * *

As the four sharpteeth were traveling back to their sleeping area with their new acquaintance, he couldn't help but feel great uncertainty about the path that would lie ahead of him. They were walking in formation. Cera and Taunt at the front with Specter walking slightly behind both of them. Petrie kept an eye on him from above while Littlefoot volunteered to walk closely behind.

 _Ugh... I feel like I'm being walked to my execution. Claws left, right, above and behind... Do they really think I could harm them?_ Specter thought to himself while eyeing the two predators in front of him. _Hmm... I guess they are only reasonable. I would probably do the same in their positions._

He didn't know why Littlefoot was so eager to be guarding their rear, though. At this point he was dead certain that he was the pack's alpha, the leader. And leaders usually walked in the first line. Leaders usually led. It didn't make much sense to him.

The brown fastbiter, however, knew exactly what he was doing.

 _Alright, maybe now I can make sure..._

Littlefoot sniffed a few times at the tall sharptooth in front of him. While he did not have much reason to distrust Specter any longer, making absolutely sure about his words would not hurt. If not for himself then at least for the rest of the pack. However, he was aware that he couldn't check for everything. Scents did not work that way. And since Specter's feathers had only very recently dried off, most of the scents he had emitted when explaining himself were long since gone.

Still, with what little remained to pick up, Littlefoot would be glad to confirm his good will.

 _So, what do we have? Fastbiter... Of our kind... Huh, interesting... And I thought I grew quite large... Male, young adult, healthy, unmated..._ Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with him. Again. But he wanted to inquire further. _Feels lost, still a bit angry but a lot less than before, nervous, concerned... bits of fear, still... and..._

That was the scent he was looking for. He had mustered Specter with inquisitive eyes for the whole walk, analyzing every single move and every feeling he could sense, and it was only now that his expression softened up a lot. The scent was barely noticeable, as nobody had spoken a single word since they had begun the journey back to their home. But it was still there, ever so faintly. And he didn't care if this method was quite inaccurate. It would do for the night.

Littlefoot smiled again.

 _Truth._

* * *

When the group finally reached the sleeping area, 20 pairs of glowing eyes of many different colors were looking right at Specter, with another one sternly staring at the pack leader.

 _Oh dear, I should have known... Taunt and Stern Claw and their subtlety... Now to explain this to Ponder and the rest..._ Littlefoot thought, with mental sigh.

Specter could only roll his own eyes, as he knew he would have some more explaining to do.

 _THIS is the pack? Holy crap. This is like Jurassic Park all over... Except that... there are no humans any more... and that I'm one of the raptors now... and this is Jurassic, no, probably Cretaceous World..._

To his great surprise, though, the pack seemingly agreed to talk this through at a later point, which gave him much relief. Even though they had done that in another language apparently, a strange language he couldn't understand. He wondered for but a moment if this had been a conversation in leaf-eater, but he was far too confused and tired to ponder this, or reflect his change again. The friendly nod from Littlefoot afterwards that everything was alright and that he was off the hook, this was everything Specter wanted to see. He returned the gesture and then slowly trotted off by himself.

Still an empathic and respectful being, he knew that 'impolite' would not even have been the right word to describe his intentions, had he decided to sleep right next to such a big pack of Utahraptors he barely knew. The fact that every one of them apparently had children didn't make this whole situation any better for him.

He was in a very peculiar position indeed.

With these final thoughts he soon found his sleeping spot too, a few hundred meters away in a clearing between some large bushes, and quickly dismissed all of his concerns and fears. Although he could forsee already that the next day would bring quite some more turmoil into his life.

And it would only get harder from there.

* * *

 **So there we have it. Two chapters written directly out of my head. As I already said, I would highly appreciate some input, criticism and ideas or corrections.**

 **I just hope you like all this a little bit and enjoy reading. :)**

 _ **(Final Version)**_

 _ **Addendum: I suppose you'd expect a little roundup of names and the lore-specific vocabulary at this point. However, this I have tried to explain in the story itself, a lot of it coming up in next chapter. A little unusual, I will admit, but I personally like this more than providing just a list with "things to learn". As always, though, if there are any questions, please do not hesitate to ask away.  
**_


	3. Chapter 2: Transition

**Chapter 2: Transition**

 _ **"Times of transition are strenuous, but I love them. They are an opportunity to purge, rethink priorities, and be intentional about new habits. We can make our new normal any way we want." - Kristin Armstrong**_

It had been a peaceful night for Specter, as peaceful as one could expect someone to sleep after they got turned into a massive weapon of sheer destruction on two legs overnight. Then again, according to that, where exactly would have been the difference between him now and his past self? Sure, he truly was massive in terms of size now, but everything else could've just as well been applied onto the casual human being he once was. Only that now, his way seemed to serve a purpose. The purpose of killing others for food. Where was the purpose of killing others for beliefs, whether they might have been political or religious? And although this certainly never has been the rule, it happened often enough. He never understood this sick concept of human society, but he knew he could allow himself not to care about that.

 _Not anymore... At least for now._ He finished his line of thinking.

He had been awake for quite some time already, but decided to rest his senses a little more in the warm embrace of the morning sun and the light breeze, which made his black and golden feathers shift back and forth all over his body. He wished that he could've lazily taken in the warm rays of the sun all day, resting in his spot, not caring about a thing in the world, but he knew that would have been a stupid wish to make.

 _Talking about making the same mistake twice... Time to get up already._

The necessity of him adapting to this new life was obvious, even though all of this still felt like a dream to him. But this was reality now. He would have to adapt and he would have to do it quick. He got changed into an adult Utahraptor. That kind of raptor already was the largest around, but it looked like as if he would set the new standards now.

He could guess all too well what would be coming today.

 _At least I was an omnivore before. That should make it a bit easier._

He was quite certain of that, actually. He loved the tastes of all different kinds of meat, even though he also really liked animals. So his stance on that matter pretty much was to respect every form of life until food was absolutely needed from it. However, he was also aware that the only things he ever killed in his past life had been mosquitos and maybe some annoying wasps, and even then he had used tools for that.

His only tool for killing now was his very own body. The dangerously sharp claws on his forelimbs, feet, his teeth, and, lest one would forget, his two massive, enlarged sickle claws on his feet, so iconic for his new species. Those were his weapons.

 _Well, so much for theory..._

With a gentle but audible grumble, his stomach was making him aware of himself again. It was almost time.

"How are you holding up?"

He looked up at the brown raptor, who was looking at him with concern in his eyes.

"Quite well, I guess, considering all that's happened. Thanks for asking, Seeker." Specter replied honestly.

This was indeed a new experience for both sharpteeth.

"If you want to talk about..." Littlefoot then started again, but he was cut off by the black fastbiter.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Now, what's the plan for today?"

Littlefoot let out a deep sigh, but he accepted Specter's rejection of opening himself up to him. He wanted to know more about him and his past, as it all seemed so surreal. The way he talked, the things he knew about the Stone. And he wasn't lying. What he had said made sense and his scents gave Littlefoot enough proof of that. But he was fully aware that this was not an option right now. He would have enough time for those questions after helping his new acquaintance finding himself around in this harsh environment.

"Spotter has found a longneck, not yet fully grown. It probably drifted away from its herd yesterday morning. Seems like an orphan, considering nobody went after it. That will be your target. I would've liked to start your training with smaller targets, but... you're not exactly cut out for that kind of training, I fear. Not anymore."

 _A 'longneck'? Ah, of course. Well, this one's a bit easier. Probably the word for any type of Sauropod..._ Specter quickly pondered Littlefoot's explanations.

In the end, he simply nodded at this, but Littlefoot was not finished yet.

"However, considering what you told me... you will definitely need some training in tracking and running first." He mustered the prone fastbiter for a few seconds before continuing. "You may be big, you may not need much... ingenuity when hunting, but you're still a fastbiter. You can't take on adult longnecks or threehorns alone head-on like a two-footer could. We rely on speed and agility... Or at least I hope so in your case. You're almost as big as Path."

Specter noticed the doubts in Littlefoot's eyes.

 _'Fastbiter' must be the word for a raptor... and 'threehorn', well, must be Triceratops or just most Ceratopsians. But... a 'two-footer'? And... who is...?_

"Path? Well... maybe he could teach me, too?"

Littlefoot was slightly taken aback by this.

"A two-footer training an ankle-biter? Don't be silly..."

The hypocrisy in that statement was so obvious that Littlefoot slapped himself in his mind. After all, that two-footer's parents had trained the pack for quite a while. However, knowing him and his sometimes blunt attitude, Littlefoot rather took over Specter's training alone for now.

"Ankle-biter? I could bite his head off if I wanted to, whatever he is. Or would you assume otherwise?"

Upon saying this, Specter suddenly rose up to his full height, which made Littlefoot gasp, then gulp noticeably.

The black sharptooth truly was huge for a supposed fastbiter. Standing right in front of Specter, Littlefoot almost looked like a different colored miniature version of him. But it wasn't about his size. It was something about his words. It was the way Specter had spoken these last sentences that deeply unnerved the brown fastbiter.

They were cold. Cold as ice. No sign of pride or jest could be found. His words carried nothing. Nervous and surprised, but not wanting to take any unnecessary danger, Littlefoot calmly took a few steps back and let his sense of smell do the work.

He had no idea he played Specter right into his claws.

It was a confusing mix of scents which radiated from him. Other than the smell of himself, of course, there was not the distinctive scent of pride he would smell when Cera made one of her boisterous speeches, nor the scent of jest he would smell when Taunt was allowed to make one of his remarks. He also couldn't smell if it was the truth or a lie.

The feelings of the smaller fastbiter had not eluded Specter's senses at all. This was exactly what he wanted. He had spent his time after waking up earlier in the morning quite well.

* * *

 **Earlier that morning:**

 _Alright, let's try this out once more._

He took in a deep breath with the intention to take in as many scents as possible and analyze them.

 _Ok, how many are there? 20 Utahraptors in total... 8 adults... 4 males, 4 females... 12 younglings... 7 males, 5 females... and 5... uhm... what are those called again? Dimorphodons? Nah, those are way too small! Uhm... Cearadactylae...? Damn it, I forgot! Doesn't matter, speaking like everyone else in this time does is way easier anyway... sometimes... So, what could they be called? Ah, yes! 5 sharptooth flyers... 2 adults... 1 male, 1 female... and 3 younglings... 1 male and 2 females. Yes! That's it. That's their pack._

He has practiced his sense of smell since waking up and was quickly getting the desired results.

 _But there must be more to it... This is too advanced to just be everything...  
_

He sniffed around his own body for a while, letting his senses do their work. He began to smile at his discovery.

 _So that's why he insisted on staying behind me all the way back last night! I can smell emotions and feelings. That means others can, too. What do we have here? Excitement... confusion... loneliness? Nah, I'm not feeling lonely. Well, maybe a little, I guess. Wait... What is that?_

The smell he now suddenly noticed was different from the others. He had to reach deep into his mind to decipher it.

 _I'm... lying? I can smell out lies?  
_

He played around with the thought about how all this would be possible but couldn't come to a conclusion. It was just the way it was. And then he wanted to try something. Something which could only be thought of by a being which did not belong into this body of his, and into this entire time. Until quite recently.

 _Hmm... Interesting. So this is all tied to what I'm feeling... what I'm believing in. If I'm shitting someone, they will know... But... what if...?_

* * *

 **The present:**

"Sorry, Seeker... I... wanted to try something. And you happened to be the first one to come by today." Specter finally said, giving Littlefoot an apologetic, submissive smile.

For the life of him, Littlefoot could not figure out what the black fastbiter had just done to him. But he didn't like it. At all.

Specter was fully aware of what his little trick would probably cause to someone else with a sense of smell like his. After all, he had tried it out on himself and it felt terribly wrong to him. So he quickly tried to make amends without giving away too much.

"It was a bad joke... in a way. Anyway, I won't do it again. I promise."

The scent of truth again radiated from him and Littlefoot finally loosened up a bit. He gave him an affirmative nod before finally speaking again.

"Alright, but you will explain this to me later. Come on now. I want you to meet the rest of the pack. Path will want to take a good look at you as well." Upon mentioning the two-footer, Littlefoot gave Specter a wide smirk. "I'm sure he will be quite excited to meet the first fastbiter ever who not only rivals his current size, but also dared to claim he could take him on alone."

Specter rolled his eyes and smiled slightly at that prospect.

 _Ugh... I really should learn to keep my mouth shut more often._

He gave his big skull a slight knock with his right forelimb before following Littlefoot in the direction of where the rest of the pack would be.

* * *

As the two fastbiters walked out into the open, Specter was once again overwhelmed by his sharp senses. He had already noticed the day before that he could see perfectly in the night. Better than he could have ever imagined.

 _If my eyes had stayed the same as they were when I was a human, I could've just jumped off a cliff anyway..._ He thought to himself, as he remembered how he perceived the last night.

He had been able to see everything clearly, so he already knew that his visual perception was now much better than a human's could ever be. Although his head now triangular in shape meant that his eyes were mounted on the sides, which did bring a few disadvantages, too. Most noticeably a decline in his depth perception, albeit he had to admit that his vastly extended field of vision made up for that again. He was still able to see three-dimensionally, but it took a lot of getting used to. He had possessed quite a big nose as a human, true, but the snout of an over two and a half meter tall Utahraptor was a little harder for his brain to just blend out.

Last night, he made a small clearing between multiple trees his sleeping area, so that the sun could wake him up as its rays would shine into the clearing and down onto his feathers. When he had first opened his eyes in the morning light, he didn't think too much about his eyesight anymore.

But that would drastically change as he left the trees and stood in awe at what was in front of him.

Vast fields of tall grass and giant forests in the distance, multiple little rivers and all of that mostly embraced by a ring of huge mountains. He had never seen anything like this. And that was true in multiple ways, as he now grew aware of his eyesight again. Of the way he saw things.

The color of the prehistoric grass seemed different. It wasn't the usual warm, dark green color he was quite accustomed to, but rather had a cold, blueish green color. But it wasn't just the grass that was different. Every color he used to know was now enhanced, improved, split up into multiple other colors. He could even see colors he had never seen before. Colors that he could not come up with a name for.

A memory of his past life flashed up in his mind.

He had sometimes teased one of his best friends with the way he perceived colors. They even had their own word for his little 'handicap'. In a way, it was very similar to what Specter was experiencing right now. He couldn't help but laugh at that memory. A faint and noticeably sad laugh.

 _Wherever you are buddy, I hope you're having fun... knowing that I have become color-stupid as well now..._

"Are you alright?" Came the careful question from Littlefoot at Specter's sudden outburst.

"Yeah..." Specter responded, forcing a slight smile onto his face. "Come on, let's get going."

A scent of deep sadness radiated from him. He would very likely not see his friends anytime soon again. He could only hope they were doing fine without him.

* * *

"Oh, I see them! I do! I do!"

At the light green fastbiter's words, the whole pack stopped doing whatever they had been doing moments before and looked in unison at the two fastbiters which were slowly but steadily closing the distance on them.

"Woah...!" Several of the pack's children exclaimed at the tall, black fastbiter's approach in broad daylight.

"He's huge!"

"And he is supposed to be a fastbiter like us?"

"Hmpf... He doesn't even look _that_ big. I bet mommy could take him on any day!"

"Yeah, you tell them, Ambush!"

"That's enough, kids! Remember, he is our guest for now so I expect you to treat him like one, understand? That goes especially for you, Pouncer."

"But mom..."

They didn't have any more time for their bickering as their leader and their guest were now standing just in front of the assembled pack.

"Everyone, this is Specter." Littlefoot spoke.

The predators of the pack all slowly bowed their heads and let out some light growls of welcome. Even Ambush was humbled into politeness at his sight now.

 _Well... he is a little taller than he looked from back there... and last night..._ The little fastbiter thought to herself.

Specter didn't even have time to think about how to respond when his body did the same gesture practically all by itself. It annoyed him. Not because he didn't like the gesture, but because he didn't know why he did it so intuitive. And because he felt helpless for these few seconds, as his body wouldn't obey him anymore. All of this was still too new for him. But he didn't want his worries to stain his good mood. Despite having sad thoughts about his past, he was just happy to have actually found a pack willing to take in someone like him. The leader seemed to be a nice guy, too, so he deduced that he could call himself really lucky for once in his life.

Littlefoot then proceeded to introduce him to every member he did not encounter on his first night.

"So, this is my dear mate Ponder, this right here is Haven, and this is her brother Finder..."

He felt more than awkward, considering all of them were pretty much staring at him and keeping silent, or maybe they were just acting extremely respectful. Either way, he felt uncomfortable, but he still took great care in remembering all of their scents. After what felt like an eternity, everyone was introduced to one another.

That was when crashing footsteps could be heard in the distance.

"Ah, it looks like Path is coming to greet our newest fuzzball friend."

Specter chuckled at Taunt's antics. Calling him a fuzzball when Taunt was the one who had to look up to him to make eye contact. That was until after a few more moments, the massive, purple two-footer came into visual range of the pack.

"So, this is the ankle-biter that woke me up from my sleep last night." His booming voice echoed through the clearing as the big hunter came closer to the assembled sharpteeth.

Specter gulped at his sight, such a bulky and strikingly colored predator.

 _So this is Path... Two-footer means Tyrannosaurus... Why does this not surprise me?_

"I'm truly sorry. It was... not my intention." He carefully responded. He didn't even want to imagine what would've happened if that guy instead of Littlefoot had found him.

The Tyrannosaurus was now coming to a halt and stood only a few meters away from Specter as he inspected him with great care. The big fastbiter's size didn't elude him, of course. He was glad, actually. Glad that the pack had found someone he wouldn't need to look down upon if they had a conversation.

Specter couldn't mount an instinctual greeting, however. The sharptooth in front of him was not one of his kind so he would have to come up with something by himself. At first he thought about going for a handshake, but after looking at the Tyrannosaurus' short, stubby arms, he quickly dismissed that thought.

He bowed his head instead.

"Pleased to meet you, Path." He finally responded after looking at the two-footer again.

Chomper did the same gesture of a respectful greeting.

"Likewise. I'm glad the pack has found another food-chaser for me."

Subsequently, he let out a throaty laugh which made the children all take a few steps back.

Specter didn't quite understand the context of that, but the implications were quite clear. So he thought about making a snarky remark about the colors of his feathers and what Chomper's statement had to do with it for a second, but quickly dismissed that, too. They wouldn't understand it anyway. He just laughed as well, instead.

Knowing that Chomper would've liked to know more about the newcomer, as everyone else, Littlefoot decided to take the word again.

"Good! Good! I'm sure we will all get along just fine."

Then Ruby wasted no time taking the initiative and asked the obvious question.

"So, what do you plan to do now?"

The question was directed at Specter, but it was Littlefoot who gave the response.

"I will help him find his way around here a bit. Teach him some important stuff. Spotter has found us a young longneck heading right for our territory, so I want to help him get a proper meal as well."

Ruby mustered Specter for a while before giving a dry response.

"I'm sure he can look after himself even without your help, dear. Just look at him! He is a big sharptooth. I don't understand why he would need your help. If he wouldn't be this big, then I would understand why he would need your help, but..."

"I don't know yet how to properly hunt or fight. Didn't he tell you about how I got here? Do you want me to starve out here?"

Everyone looked in shock at Specter's revelation.

Right before massive laughter broke out between the pack. Most of the adults kept silent but their children were having a field day. As did Chomper. His shattering laugh almost seemed like it would make the ground tremble.

And who could have blamed them? Before them stood a fully grown sharptooth. And he claimed he wouldn't know a thing about hunting. Specter could only sigh at this display. He truly was an oddity. An oddity in an already strange world.

"Silence!"

The laughter died down immediately, although Chomper was still chuckling slightly for a few more moments. It was Ruby who had demanded that. She was looking with an unreadable expression at Specter before switching to her mate.

"If that is so, then I will go with you." Her next words were directed at Specter again. "And after that I want to hear about your story. About your story I want to hear after that."

Specter didn't want to say anything wrong as he already felt the urge to make a little, insulting remark about her sing-song way of speaking, so he just nodded twice in affirmation.

"Fine by me. Spotter, you're coming with us as well obviously." Littlefoot then concluded before any more discussions could arise.

"Sure thing, Seeker!"

* * *

 **A few hours later:**

Specter was pretty exhausted, borderline tired out. Littlefoot had already given him the theoretical lessons of tracking, hunting and killing. The kind of things Specter had been able to anticipate already, given his knowledge about dinosaurs and simple logic when it came to hunting. How to find the target, how to approach it and how to finish it off without causing too much suffering. It was all they had time for. And since Specter was totally fine with hunting, Littlefoot didn't have too many problems talking about it openly without trying to palliate the act of killing.

But Specter had to learn how to chase his targets as well, so Littlefoot had demanded of him to try and catch him.

And while the tall Utahraptor was moderately fast by now, he was nowhere near as fast as Littlefoot was. Not yet and probably not afterwards either. He was just too big and heavy for a fastbiter. Especially in tight turns he had fallen over and crashed into some trees more than once. The same went for the casual jump, after which he had often landed on his face. Still, he was slowly getting used to handling his new body. And Specter found Littlefoot to be quite the awesome teacher, so he was enjoying himself in spite of his occasional failure.

As it was getting darker, and the Bright Circle was about to meet the distant horizon, Littlefoot deduced it would be time to start the actual hunt soon. And so he took Specter towards a different area.

"Here, take some of these." Littlefoot said upon arriving there and tossed a few of the pointed sticks they had stashed away in Specter's direction. "Those are pointed sticks. They are very useful for hunting, especially bigger leaf-eaters. Do you know how to use them?"

Specter picked one of the spears up with wide eyes and inspected the crude weapon closely.

 _They're... They're using spears?! First the 'poison', and now those raptors can use and craft fucking spears?! Wow... This... is definitely something new. I just hope only these guys here know about this. Hmm... Well... Those are very primitive... but useful. They are probably thinking of them as their personal 'wonder weapons'. Funny... they would work so much better if they would add some sharp stones to them and harden them in fire. Or at least harden the sticks themselves in fire a bit..._

"Have you thought about...?" He started his response, but interrupted it as soon as he reflected the repercussions this idea might cause.

 _Am I retarded?! I can't interfere with nature like that! Even if I only tell them... at some point, everyone knows... No, I have to make sure, first!  
_

"...that... I know a lot about those particular things. So... uhm... yeah... I know how to use these." A forced laugh escaped Specter's maw after that.

"Good, let's go then. We're close."

Littlefoot didn't pay too much heed to Specter's strange behavior.

 _He's probably just nervous. After all, this is supposedly his first hunt._ He figured, as he remembered all too well how his first hunt went. _Rhett... I hope you've found peace...  
_

With Rhett, he had lost a friend in that fateful night and almost his life later on, after Ali told the valley that it was he who had killed him. But he dismissed these melancholic thoughts as soon as they came. They had a hunt to attend to. And he would make sure that everything went smooth. Maybe Specter wouldn't exactly think of it as 'smooth' at all, but it was all carefully planned out.

Yet for some reason, he felt like as if he had also missed out on something.

* * *

"For the love of... Crusher, would you please get a move on? We've been wandering around here for almost two days and there is still no sign of the herd. At this rate, we will be sharptooth food by the time the Night Circle rises!"

"Oh please, spare me your flathead thoughts! You think I'm happy about this? It was your idea to go on a journey around this place. 'Let's look for some sweet bubbles' he said. 'I will make it worth your while' he said." Came the mocking answer from the dull, beige-colored threehorn. "My dad told me again and again not to play with you and look where I am now!"

"Well at least you still have someone to go back to!" The similarly-colored longneck yelled back at him.

"Do I?! Did you already forget what's happened to my parents all these cold times back?!"

The longneck was stunned into silence. Crusher's reminder had achieved the desired effect, making the longneck aware again that both of them had lost their parents. The longneck had lost his caretakers very early on in his life, but Crusher should've been spared of that fate. Although it would still catch up with him later on. He would never forget the horrifying sight of the huge pack of fastbiters raiding the two herds. He would never forget the sight of what he presumed was the leader of this pack. His piercing, cold yellow eyes, and his tan hide.

No, they were alone out here. They always have been, even among their herd.

They were the only two children of two small herds of longnecks and threehorns who survived the many sharptooth attacks in the past years. The herds were traveling together at this time for safety reasons, but never socialized with one another. Their respective elders always preached to them that longnecks and threehorns must keep to their own. But they never told them why, so the two dinosaurs often snuck away to just be free of all this. At first it was out of necessity, as they didn't have anyone else to play with. But it soon turned into a friendship that would be tainted heavily by the segregation both of their kinds suffered from in most parts of the Mysterious Beyond.

It was only at desperate times like these that Crusher allowed himself to show what he knew as a sign of weakness. He let out a loud sigh as he recomposed himself.

"You're right, I'm sorry. Let's just get home, ok, Alamo?"

The longneck nodded at this and both went further into the forest. They had survived a few attacks of smaller sharpteeth while wandering through the lands. Crusher had been injured slightly after one attack yesterday, so the two of them had split up for a bit back then. But this didn't matter too much. They would not rest until they found their herd.

Or someone else found them first.

* * *

"What about your sniffer?"

"My what?"

Littlefoot pointed at his own nostrils, shaking his head slightly in disbelief at how they were both speaking the same language, yet sometimes couldn't understand one another.

"Oh. Well, you remember what I did this morning, right?"

"Yes...? And I still want an explanation for that, Specter."

"Don't worry, Seeker, you will!" Specter responded honestly once more, though with a bit of sulkiness. "Anyway, I have been training my 'sniffer' the whole morning so I should be fine. Besides, I've been using my nose before my change, too, you know?"

Littlefoot could only eye Specter, who was smirking a bit, in slight surprise.

 _At least I don't need to teach him how to track this longneck over longer distances as well._ _The practical lessons for that would consume days. I wonder what he was before his change that this comes so natural to him... Though, I think it's because he's an adult now... How would he not know how to use his sniffer?_

"Alright then. Now listen closely. The longneck is alone out there. Spotter is just making another flight but from what seems to be the case, it will be heading right into our claws. But I want you to know that even a lone longneck can be..."

And Specter listened closely to Littlefoot's plan. It was not like he couldn't have come up with these conclusions by himself, as they really were quite obvious for the most part, but it never hurt to hear another input. Besides, Littlefoot has apparently, and successfully, played this little game called 'survival' for several years now, so what could go wrong? Whatever this brown raptor had to say, he would follow his word.

"... which is why we must be very careful. Do exactly as I tell you, and everything will be fine. Ok, Specter, we will do it like this..." Littlefoot then started relaying the plan. "Ponder and I will..."

* * *

"A little help here maybe?" Crusher asked, standing in front of a large pool of mud.

"Just go along this pathway to the right, it's narrow but you should fit." Alamo replied.

"Fine."

The longneck carefully waded into the deep mud and used his big body and powerful legs to push himself through the pool. He was not fully grown, yet already stood as tall to his back as an adult threehorn. It filled him with pride to be able to say this for himself, but it also annoyed him in some way, as he also wouldn't grow much bigger than that. And his friend Crusher was already beginning to rival him in size, too.

When he finally made it out of the mud, he turned around and gave Crusher a smirk.

"See? It's easy. Come on already you scaredy-egg!"

"What did you just call me?!" Crusher snorted.

Alamo still kept on smiling. He knew exactly what the threehorn would be about to do now. As much as he liked this stubborn horn-face, sometimes Alamo just wanted to see him land on his face. And at the end of the narrow pathway intended for Crusher to use, there were a few nasty, little rocks. Knowing Crusher, he would most likely dismiss them.

But then Crusher took a few more steps back than Alamo had expected, and charged headlong onto the narrow pathway with all his speed. A serious mistake, as some rocks slipped away under the threehorn's sudden weight on them, and Crusher's current speed.

 **Splash!**

The threehorn rolled over with a surprised yelp and fell right into the mud. And while Crusher, too, was quite bulky by now, he was nowhere near able to get through such a mud pool like a longneck could.

"Ah, crap! Help me!"

"Crusher! Ok, stay calm and don't move!"

"Just do something!"

Alamo scanned his surroundings in panic, but quickly saw something that might help.

"Here, grab these vines!"

He threw a whole bunch of the robust material to his friend, who managed to catch a few of them in his beak.

"Alright, now pull!" Crusher muttered as loud as he could while trying to keep the vines in his grasp.

It took them several minutes, but after that time, Crusher was finally free from this dastardly pool. Completely covered in mud, but alive.

"Yuck! Disgusting! I can't walk around like this for the rest of the day."

"We'll go find some water soon. Just relax for a moment, will you? You could've died there."

"Hmpf! I had it all under control until you decided to call me a scaredy-egg!" His voice didn't hide the fact that Crusher was immensely grateful to the longneck. He owed him his life. He sighed and spoke up once more. "Alright, maybe I should take a little rest."

"You being reasonable, Crusher? I thought that I would never see the day." The longneck responded, smiling at the threehorn's antics. He knew that despite his hard frill, he had a soft spot deep inside him. They both had been through too much to deny that. "Anyway, get some rest. I will look for some water in the meantime."

"Alright." Came Crusher's response.

As Alamo walked away, Crusher turned his head towards his friend again.

"...and thanks. Just... be careful out there."

Alamo turned to face him as well. He simply smiled and gave him a nod.

 _We will get through this._ Crusher thought to himself as he laid down under some trees.

Both friends never noticed the sudden appearance of a brown sharptooth flyer high in the sky, who scanned the ground briefly before locking on to his target.

"Found you!"

* * *

"Alright, got it." Specter affirmed. He didn't like it all too much, however. This whole plan sounded quite risky.

Littlefoot wanted to attack the longneck head-on together with Ruby to either injure or scare it and make it run away. The most likely route of escape would be straight back to where it came from. If that happened, it would be Specter's job to use the spears to kill or injure the longneck further from the bushes so that it could be finished off easily by all three of them. If the longneck decided to charge at Littlefoot and Ruby, it would be dead anyway. There was no real way it would be able to fight two such experienced predators all by itself. Especially considering that the longneck wasn't yet fully grown. To each side of the trap the longneck would be about to walk into, there were huge trees in tight formations. No way to escape for something as slow and wide as a longneck through that either.

Yet, Specter felt uneasy. The mind of the predator totally agreed with the plan of a far more experienced fastbiter without hesitation, but his human mind told him something different. It felt like he was missing a part of the puzzle.

And Littlefoot's scents told him the same story. A very slight note of uncertainty radiated from him. The brown fastbiter was probably thinking exactly the same.

Why would a young longneck continue wandering alone through these lands unharmed? Petrie had told Littlefoot numerous times that he had not seen anyone else following their target, neither a herd anywhere near where he had first spotted it.

 **Caw!**

Littlefoot looked up at the sky.

"That's Spotter. The longneck will be here any moment now."

With that, the three predators moved into their attacking positions.

* * *

 _Oh man... we will never get out of this damn forest if I won't come up with something soon!_ Alamo yelled at himself inside his mind.

"Wait... That's the way out!"

He charged into the clearing only to find himself between more trees. With an annoyed sigh, he stopped when he was standing in the middle of said clearing, looking around for a while. Everything was quiet, no one was here.

"Oh that's just great! Well maybe if I head down a bit further I might..."

 **Screech!**

His sentence was cut short, however, as two fastbiters, a brown and a rose one, suddenly jumped out of some bushes and charged right at him.

"Sharptooth!"

Following his alarmed scream, he turned straight around and ran with all the speed he could muster. Alamo may have been bigger than the two predators, but he knew himself that he was just too inexperienced to successfully fight the two fearsome sharpteeth. He needed help, and he knew exactly from whom.

* * *

 **Screech!**

"Sharptooth!"

A series of shrieks, followed by a distant cry met Crusher's ears. He knew exactly whom that voice belonged to, and to what kind of sharptooth the screeches.

"No... Shit! Alamo!"

He immediately jumped up from his resting place and raced towards the source of his friend's desperate cry for help.

 _Hold on! I won't let you down!_

* * *

The hunt was on.

 _Alamosaurus, huh? A bit over three meters tall, minus his neck, probably a few years before reaching adulthood. Sorry pal, you won't be reaching it..._ Specter quickly analyzed as he raised his spear. It would be only seconds now until he would be able to deliver a crippling blow. _Come on! Closer...closer...closer... NOW!_

He leaned back as far as he could, before, using his tail as an additional source of power, propelling his body forward again as he let the deadly projectile fly. He didn't even need to hear the longneck's reaction. Moments before the impact, he already took a breath.

"Gotcha'."

 **Shluck!**

The spear hit the longneck right into his hind leg, tearing through flesh, sinews and muscles and finally breaking apart by the momentum he was still carrying. The sharp splinters inside its leg caused it even more pain. And finally, with a loud rumble, the Sauropod crashed onto the ground. It was done for. It wouldn't be moving anywhere now. This was the end.

"Nice throw, Specter!"

Littlefoot and Ruby were now both in a slow trot towards the hapless, male longneck. He wouldn't be going anywhere, anyway. No use in wasting their breaths again. Besides, Specter had already gravely injured the longneck. They would let him have the honor of striking the killing blow.

It was his hunt, after all, and he would have to get used to this anyway.

* * *

 _Nice throw. Longneck not going anywhere now._ Petrie thought to himself from high up in the sky. His excellent sense of vision granted him a look at the injury the longneck was suffering from, even at his current altitude. _Specter a natural! Wait... what...?!_

He averted his eyes from the fallen longneck in the direction of the entrance to the clearing. He could see some smaller trees violently falling or being pushed aside. His eyes grew wide at what he saw running through the thick foliage below him.

* * *

 **Caw! Caw! Caw!**

"What?"

Littlefoot looked up at the sky again, this time in disbelief.

"That's an alarm call..." Ruby hesitantly affirmed.

Unfortunately, the prone longneck's body blocked their line of sight at the route he had originally come from. Specter, however, was still at his original position. Littlefoot had never told him what their personal scout's calls meant, but he understood now that he didn't necessarily had to.

Because a voice from inside of him did.

 _Danger?_

He took a quick sniff of air, and even though the scents were new and he couldn't connect the exact species to them, they instantly confirmed his worst suspicions regardless.

"Shit!"

In perfect unison with his yell, a male Triceratops broke through the underbrush, panting heavily, and eyed the severely injured Alamosaurus.

Crusher's eyes were burning with anger. He had lost far too much to sharpteeth in his life. He wouldn't even be here if these vile creatures had at least left him with one brother or sister. Or his father. Or his mother. But they had not. He and Alamo were the last kin of their aging herd. And even if he and his friend would die here, he would take these sharptooth bastards with them. He would make sure of that. Nobody else would fall to those monsters.

Without any further thinking, Crusher charged right at the two fastbiters standing next of his fallen friend.

Out of all the enemies most sharpteeth could pick for a fight, a threehorn certainly was the one that everyone always tried to avoid. Even though this one was not fully grown yet, its sheer mass, paired with its heavily armored frill, three dangerous horns, high agility and angry temper were a recipe for disaster. Maybe not for an adult two-footer, but very much probably for two fastbiters.

"I will kill you!"

Specter couldn't understand the threehorn's words but he knew its intentions. The rage and anger in its voice didn't need an understanding of the words. He remembered how Littlefoot had briefly told him to stay in cover under all circumstances. Even if something would've gone wrong and the longneck had attacked him and Ruby. He didn't want Specter to get hurt on his first hunt. He wanted the black fastbiter to start this off slowly and carefully.

But sometimes, even clear orders had to be disobeyed. And nobody had expected a threehorn to be with the longneck in the first place.

 _No, I have to do something! At least distract that Trike for a second so that they can jump...  
_

Not wasting any second, the massive, black fastbiter charged as fast as he could into the clearing as well. But it was too late for him to fend off the inevitable.

Crusher knew exactly how fastbiters fought. He had seen enough attacks and how they always masterfully avoided the weapons of a threehorn and most other leaf-eaters to know what to make of this. They were cowards for all he knew, cowards that killed their victims in their sleep, most often only injuring them to eat them alive. No, he would give it his all here, feeling no fear at all. As he was only moments away from impaling the brown and rose-colored fastbiters in front of him, he could see them getting ready for an evasive maneuver.

 _Not this time you bastards!_

As the two fastbiters attempted to break away from one another, he knew what counter attack would be coming. One of them, maybe even both, would jump at his side and kill him. But he would have none of it. Instead, he slowed his pace by mere fractions and changed his running pattern, so that the sharpteeth would miscalculate their defenses.

The two fastbiters had no time to react, which was quite a surprise for Crusher, given that he had expected them to be experienced hunters and fighters. Experienced murderers, that was. It would now become apparent to the sharpteeth that they had underestimated what simple rage could do to a leaf-eater, Crusher figured.

 _Let's just hope this works... Let's just hope you will do this... I'm counting on you!_ Littlefoot quickly thought to himself as he jumped upwards, used his tail to change his course and kicked Ruby out of the way.

 **Slam!**

Ruby had not expected that move, neither from the threehorn nor from her dear mate, lost balance and was hit by the threehorn's tail, while Littlefoot was hit in mid-air by the side of its frill, throwing him into the dirt.

Specter's eyes grew wide at that display. He had expected the adult fastbiters to just easily evade the threehorn's attack, jump onto its back and then rip it apart. But it had not worked out anything like that.

Clinching the remaining spear in his claws he scanned the environment, looking for a way to finally distract the leaf-eater from the prone fastbiters. In the end, he laid eyes on the longneck. A grim look formed on his face. He felt sick at what he was planning on doing, although that plan did not even come from the conscious part of his mind.

But he had no choice, so he told himself.

Alamo watched his friend in painful excitement as Crusher had seemingly finished off two adult fastbiters with a single attack. He never noticed the big shadow appear behind him.

Until it was too late, until he suddenly had multiple, huge claws grabbing his flesh.

"Hey! Argh, Crusher! Help!" Alamo screamed again.

Specter used his size and weight to hold onto the longneck's neck like a constrictor, keeping his claws dangerously close to the leaf-eater's flesh. His current pose might've looked ridiculous, but he couldn't come up with anything else. It was highly effective regardless. One false move would cause the longneck a deadly injury. Once again, he felt like he was losing control over his body. Only this time, it was different. He let it happen willingly.

He embraced it.

Even without fully understanding this new world, he knew the longneck wouldn't understand any of his words and neither would the rampaging threehorn. However, the threehorn would probably understand the longneck's screams. But it seemed like the Triceratops didn't care a single bit about his friend, who was about to die, Specter noted grimly.

Crusher was dismissing everything else, even the screams of Alamo. He had his eyes firmly fixed on the prone, brown fastbiter, as he closed the distance to it until he stood right in front of the sharptooth. He slowly raised his front foot.

He would make sure that both, but at the very least one of these fiends paid for their endless crimes with their petty lives.

Specter was quaking in anger that the threehorn would not let off of Littlefoot. He had to do something. Something more. Taking a short look at the hostage at his claws, he didn't waste any more time.

 _Oh, no... I'm sorry..._

 **Slice!**

He let go of the longneck for a second and with a horrible sound, he ripped through its belly with his sickle claw. The disemboweled longneck's much louder than before, high-pitched scream echoed through the dusk.

"This... is for father!" Crusher yelled in his anger while having his foot raised to the highest point he could manage.

He was by far not big enough to crush the whole fastbiter under it, that was something which pretty much only adult longnecks could say for themselves, but he would easily be able to squash part of its body and legs with a single stomp.

That was when the horrifying scream reached his ears.

Immediately, he was shocked out of his rampage. All thoughts about his father and mother were gone. Only now he realized that he had completely neglected his friend in his rage. Unlike his parents, Alamo was still alive. He was starting to shake, his legs starting to give in. He never noticed the single, yellow eye from below looking up at him.

And stomped down with all his might.

 **Crack!**

Specter's face lost all expression.

He had only known Littlefoot for one day, but the brown raptor had agreed on taking him in and teaching him the stuff he needed to know. Specter considered him not only his leader by now. He considered him somewhat a friend. He got to meet his pack and their children. He had been so keen on hearing some of his fascinating stories about his past life before his change in person.

And now he was dead. Crushed by an angry threehorn. Something snapped inside of him. Something deep inside of him awoke. Something primal.

 **Screech!**

Following that ear-piercing shriek, he bit down on the longneck's throat while simultaneously putting the claws on his hands and feet to use. His sharp teeth penetrated and cut apart its flesh with ease, almost ripping the poor leaf-eater's head off in a violent motion, while his other weapons did the rest. The tepid blood of a longneck splattered across the whole area.

He was caked from head to toe in the longneck's crimson blood after this erratic move. And as the metallic taste in his mouth was being processed by his senses, one final thought crossed his mind.

 _So this is why they call it bloodlust..._

And then everything inside his head went silent.

Crusher slowly turned around, the brown fastbiter's body obstructed by his bulky form while the rose one was still out cold. Little did he care about some fastbiters now. He was only staring at his friend. Alamo was still twitching a little bit, his eyes moving violently in all directions as rivers of blood escaped his body and gurgling sounds emerged from his ripped throat.

Then all was still. Alamo was no more.

His eyes moved on to the tall fastbiter, which he almost perfectly matched in size. The sharptooth stood next to Alamo's gutted corpse, shaking with anger itself. The sharptooth's black fuzz was covered in blood. The blood of the only friend he ever had. Each eyed one another for several seconds before Crusher started another charge.

He had found his new target.

Specter was watching calmly as the threehorn came running at him with tremendous speed, his brain calculating the distance between them. His primal instincts had assumed control. He felt no fear anymore. He felt no anger anymore. He felt no sadness anymore. He felt nothing. He only knew one thing.

He would kill that threehorn.

With swift movement he picked up his spear from the ground, which he had dropped earlier to hold on to the longneck. He clinched the weapon in his claws. It would be only seconds now.

 _Triceratops, maybe five tons, three meters tall, almost fully grown, 60 meters away, going at around 30 kph..._ The thoughts raced with the speed of light inside his head.

He closed his eyes. The rumbling of the ground his only perception now.

 _50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5...  
_

It was only after the threehorn was merely those five meters away from him that his eyes sprang open again, and with unexpected movement for a fastbiter, Specter slammed the bottom of his spear into the ground and jumped out of the way.

It was too late for Crusher to react. He desperately tried to brake, but couldn't stop his momentum anymore.

 **Shluck!**

The spear from below impaled itself into his delicate throat. The weapon ripped right through his windpipe. The world around him began to spin as he tried to gasp for air to no avail. Ghastly sounds emerged from his throat in his final fight with death. His movement abruptly slowed down and suddenly came to a halt as he collapsed to the ground, face to face with his dead friend.

 _I'm... so... sorry... Alamo..._

His last thoughts slipped away from his mind before only stillness remained. The world around him turned black. He had lost this final battle.

The threehorn was dead.

Still breathing heavily, Specter took one last look at the Triceratops to confirm its death before heading towards his seemingly crushed leader. His heart was already pumping in a frequency that would have made him simply drop to the ground as a human.

How would he explain this to the pack? They would probably kill him for that. He had acted too late. He could've done more. It was his fault. His heart started beating even harder.

He sprinted towards the place where Littlefoot must have been, faster than he had ever sprinted in his life, more than twice as fast than a normal human could have ever sprinted. At the sight that greeted him, the world around him seemed to stop for a second, spinning around and then stopping once more.

The brown fastbiter was unharmed. He was unconscious, but still breathing. Littlefoot was alive, and so was Ruby. There was a large crater right next to Littlefoot's feet and Ruby was still out cold, too, but this didn't even matter to Specter. His tactic had worked.

He had to sit down for a few moments.

* * *

"Ugh... Damn, what happened?"

Two pairs of eyes greeted him before Littlefoot was suddenly embraced by his mate.

"Oh thank goodness you're well! The threehorn attacked us. He hit both of us! I thought you were..." Ruby couldn't continue as she buried her head in Littlefoot's chest.

"Where is he?" Littlefoot immediately asked softly while stroking his Ruby's neck.

"He save you, Seeker! He distracted threehorn and kill it." Came Petrie's voice from right next to him. The flyer was still in shock at what happened. How could it have possibly escaped his sharp eyes that the longneck had a threehorn with him? "This all my fault! Me should have..."

"No. This is nobody's fault, Spotter." Littlefoot interrupted him. "We all make mistakes. Did you see the mud on the threehorn's body? I bet you that was why you couldn't see him on your last spotting flight. Bad coincidence... Now please tell me, where is he?"

Petrie hesitantly gestured towards the two leaf-eater corpses.

His sight was still a little bit hazy, but Littlefoot could see Specter standing there, unmoving. The tall fastbiter was facing the bodies, his black feathers heavily tainted with their blood.

"Excuse me for a bit, will you?"

Ruby unwillingly let go of her mate, but after a few moments finally, she and Petrie gave Littlefoot an understanding nod.

Littlefoot stood up and slowly walked towards the large predator in front of the leaf-eater corpses. He was limping slightly and his chest was still burning in pain. The hit he took from the threehorn luckily didn't leave him with major injuries but it was an important reminder.

An important reminder that next time, he probably wouldn't get away that easily with his boldness. Though, he was still glad that everything had worked out.

Seemingly unaware of him, Specter stood in front of the two corpses in silence for a little more before moving forwards. He lowered his body and carefully used the backside of his claws to close their eyelids. He didn't want to see the expressions of pain, horror and death in their empty oculi anymore.

Littlefoot couldn't bring out a single word. He had never seen a display like this, such an emotional gesture.

 _You made it look like as if they're sleeping... Peacefully..._

It made him sad that he didn't really know how to comfort Specter. Even more so, it made him sad that he had forced him to do this one his very first day here. But he was certain that it would benefit Specter more than harm him, in the end. And it had also proven him that Specter was trustworthy.

As if he had read his mind, it was Specter who started talking.

"It is something we did to our dead... You know, where I'm from. A final show of respect, so that they can have their rest. Their eternal sleep."

Littlefoot was deeply moved by this gesture, but still couldn't respond.

"I guess... now we should eat them before they start to spoil, huh?" Specter said, and a slight chuckle left his bloodstained mouth.

Littlefoot looked at him stunned for another few moments, but then regained his composure.

"Yes... we probably should. Specter... you... killed not only your target but also the threehorn, and thus saved not only me but probably Ponder as well. You risked your life for us. I don't know how to thank you for this. The killer gets the first bite. You deserve it."

He smiled at Specter who only nodded and turned towards the fallen leaf-eaters again.

 _Rest in peace, you two._

* * *

 **And with that I would like to finish the second chapter. I hope you like it and I didn't exaggerate with the gore. :P**

 **As always, I'm happy to hear about your thoughts and criticism.**

 **Have a nice day!**

 **P.S.: I'm on vacation from university right now until the second week of September so I will have a lot of time to write and come up with new ideas. However, since I had been writing basically non-stop since I have started this story I would like to take a little break and tend to my other hobbies as well. Still, you can expect Chapter 3 to be finished by the end of this week. :)**

 _ **Revised**_


	4. Chapter 3: Revelations

**Chapter 3: Revelations**

 _ **"Revelations help us accept the things we need the most, expose the secrets we so desperately try to hide and illuminate the dangers all around us. But more than anything, revelations are windows into our true selves... of the good and the evil and those wavering somewhere in between. But they have the ultimate power to destroy all that we cherish most." - Emily Thorne**_

For anything other than a carnivore, an omnivorous hunter or at the very least someone used to the sight of blood and innards, the scene would have been utter horror. The material nightmares were made of. But for the three fastbiters and the sharptooth flyer, it was a feast.

Littlefoot, Ruby and Petrie had only been eating their shares to give Specter some company while he was having his meal after his successful, first hunt. They had thought it would help him in overcoming the possible trepidations he might have in ripping apart his prey, gorging himself on its flesh, sinews and blood. But they soon found out this was rather unnecessary.

Specter's first bite into the longneck's flesh had been slow and careful, though. This truly was completely new to him, and eating raw flesh from a corpse could've been potentially, though really only potentially, fatal, if he still were to be a human. But he wasn't. Although he was slowly making peace with what he was now, and had sort of known what would await him from the start, this new way of life his change had brought with it still confused and disgusted him a little bit from time to time.

After trying to chew the big chunk of Sauropod meat in his mouth a few times, which was obviously not possible because he simply wasn't able to effectively 'chew' anymore, and letting the metallic taste of blood greet his senses, he found that he has never eaten something as delicious as this. It was only at this time that he actually noticed how hungry he really was. He had been so stressed over the whole day that he almost completely dismissed his new longing for fresh meat and blood.

Piece by piece, he ripped the longneck apart, only leaving half of its outer flesh, the bones, and most innards untouched as he still found it disgusting to eat those. He even took a few bites out of the threehorn out of curiosity how Ceratopsian meat might've tasted, although he picked the spots with great care as he didn't want to swallow the mud that was still on its body.

After some time, he finally concluded his meal and wiped his bloody muzzle at least halfway clean.

"Gee, you really were hungry, huh, big guy?" Came Littlefoot's comment from behind him.

"Yeah... Well, I haven't eaten anything since I woke up in this place."

Specter had to admit, he has really never felt any better in his life, in both of his lives. It had been one thing stuffing his stomach whenever he wanted to, just by going to the fridge, but eating his prey after a fight to death was something else entirely. It was the first time he had been truly sated by his meal, he deduced. Despite this, however, he again felt a little bit of concern. As a healthy human, he could have easily survived for several weeks without any food whatsoever. Now, him being a massive Utahraptor, on the other hand...

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. That you enjoyed it, I'm glad about." Ruby then said, a lot happier than before and in what seemed to be her usual tone. "Let's head back to the rest now, shall we? You can finally tell us more about yourself, because I'm looking forward to hearing more about you."

"So do I." Littlefoot added.

"Me too!" Petrie voiced his interest in that as well.

Specter looked at everyone for a bit. The time to tell the pack about his complicated past life was almost there it seemed, but with a full stomach and some time spent in his new life already, he was looking forward to it by now. Maybe he would be able to excite and surprise even this big pack of carnivores, a big pack of Utahraptors, Cearadactylae and a Tyrannosaurus. The thought about this prospect alone filled him with some amusement already.

"You're in for a long night then..." He responded with a happy, yet awkwardly bloody smile. "But don't you dare calling me crazy by the end of it!"

"Me don't think you will have to wait for end of night for that to happen."

Specter was slightly taken aback by Petrie's response to his jocular remark.

"What... do you mean?"

"What Spotter means is that anyone would call you crazy after what you did to end this fight. I'm sure I would if I had seen it. If I had seen it, I'm sure even I would!"

He now gave Ruby an asking look. What were they talking about? He had done what he had to do to save the two fastbiters, even though he still couldn't quite understand how he was able to pull off a move like that so casually. How did they even know about this? Both Ruby and Littlefoot had been unconscious after the threehorn's attack, after all. He just wanted to ask the inevitable question when his eyes switched over to Petrie.

 _Ugh... Of course! His kind has eyes good enough to spot a single rat from some hundred meters up in the sky. He must have seen every little detail and then told them about it._

But Ruby wanted to press the point a little bit further.

"It is not something you see every day, Specter. No normal fastbiter would do that! Closing your eyes when a threehorn charges at you? And the move you did afterwards? With your pointed stick? Spotter told us he has never seen anything like this. And neither have Seeker or me. Neither Seeker or me have ever seen anything like this."

Now that Specter thought about it, it truly must have been strange seeing him in action like that on his very first hunt. Killing his very first, reasonably sized living beings. And that counted for both his old and new life.

"Hmm... Well... But I'm no normal sharptooth, am I?" He responded with a slight smile.

That comment made everyone loosen up and chuckle in unison, for several reasons.

"No, you're certainly not." Ruby concluded.

"Can we go then? I think we all need some rest after everything that's happened today. And besides, someone has to sing about his first successful hunt as well." Littlefoot then stated, smiling widely at Specter.

To which Specter, to no surprise, looked at Littlefoot as if he had become a ghost.

Truth be told, he had been what one would've called a 'musician' in his past life, and that included some singing as well. Whenever his deep, slightly off and pretty raspy voice fitted the song, of course. But he admittedly wasn't a good singer. A terrible one, actually. Besides, singing required exposing himself willingly. Not a prospect he was particularly looking forward to, especially since he still had the pack's children's laughter ringing inside his ears that had erupted after he had told everyone he didn't know how to hunt.

 _Bah, who cares? It's not like someone could post it on the internet or something..._

This thought made him relax a little again as he raised his voice.

"Alright, fine by me. But then don't complain if I can't hit a tune. Where I come from, you don't exactly sing by roaring and screeching into the night."

"How did you do it then?" Littlefoot asked curiously.

"That's kinda hard to explain when I can't even think of, or speak out, my actual name, don't you think?"

Specter received understanding nods in return.

Littlefoot had found it highly suspicious that he wouldn't get Specter's name out of him on the first night. His real name from before his change. Normally, this was only something someone would do when that someone had terrible intentions or a horrifying past to hide and didn't want to be recognized at any cost. But after hearing that Specter must have indeed used entirely different methods of communication in his former life, he began to understand why he was so straightforward about not knowing his own name.

"Alright, we've been here long enough. I think we should really head home now."

"I agree, dear. Let's go."

Upon Ruby's affirmation to Littlefoot's statement, the four hunters headed back to the rest of the pack, leaving the only evidence of their former presence in the dust of their combined sprint.

The cadavers of Alamo and Crusher, the last children of their respective herds.

* * *

The whole pack was in a state of nervousness and anxiety. They had expected the newcomer's hunt to be done with by nightfall, but the Night Circle was already high up in the sky. Something must have gone terribly wrong. And there really was only one, possible suspect.

Nobody had fully trusted the tall, black fastbiter just yet, obviously. Specter could have been just another Calin, for all they knew. Cera was already expecting Littlefoot's tendency in lending a helping claw to strangers to finally have killed him, together with Ruby. Her thoughts and concerns were mostly shared by the rest of the adults. But if that really had been the case, where was Petrie then? Surely, Specter wouldn't have been able to kill him, too. But what if he had sharptooth flyer minions? Red Claw had had Sierra and Rinkus, and many more.

Only a light green fastbiter seemed unaffected by all this.

"Oh, I'm sure they are alright! I do! I do!"

"And what makes you so sure of that, Haven?" Cera's question had noticeable amounts of anger and concern alike. "How do you know that stranger hasn't betrayed us and killed them?"

Ducky didn't respond to that. She has always been the source of joy and hope, ever since Littlefoot had found her after his own mother died so many cold times ago. Ducky's positive words always lifted the mood of everyone, but even she knew that sometimes, she couldn't make a situation look better than it actually was. And it seemed like this was one of these times.

That was when she noticed movement in the distance. At first she couldn't see exactly who, or what it was. But after a few more moments, and after the Sky Puffies moved aside to grant some light of the Night Circle to brightly illuminate the four returning predators, she knew that she had been right after all.

"There they are! I see them! They're all alright! Yep! Yep! Yep!"

Shouts of excitement could be heard all around.

* * *

"What is going on down there?" Littlefoot asked in surprise after hearing the yells of his pack.

"I guess they had expected me to have killed all of you." Specter responded dryly, slightly in jest but still somewhat honestly.

"What? Oh, come on! Don't be silly! They would never do that! Why would you think so?"

Littlefoot felt a bit insulted. Of course he wouldn't just head out on a well-planned hunt and die, and neither did he want Specter to be thinking anything negative about his presence already. But he didn't quite get the point Specter was trying to make just yet.

The black fastbiter laughed slightly before elaborating.

"You're really asking me that? Let's see... If I were to be one of them and my leader had wandered off to a hunt, only his mate as direct support, together with a big 'sharptooth' nobody knows yet and..."

"Alright, alright... I get the message."

"Just... take it as a compliment, I guess. They care a lot about you, it seems."

"I know. Come on now, I'm sure they will be eager to hear about your accomplishments."

"I can't wait..." Specter paused shortly, turning his head around to look at the package he had been carrying on his back all the time. "...for you to finally move on your own again. Come on, Spotter! You've really rested enough at my expenses. You're not a youngling anymore, and it's not like your claws are very comfortable either..."

He had allowed Petrie to perch on his back for the trip back, as there was more than enough space even for an adult Cearadactylus. Specter considered this only a fair trade, since Petrie had averted a far worse outcome with his alarm call. Besides, the flyer had been in the air for the better part of the day and was pretty exhausted by now. But he knew Petrie would eventually take advantage of his pity and let him carry him into his nest as well if he would not intervene soon.

"But it soooo comfy back here!"

The mock bite following that statement made the flyer laugh and quickly take to the air again.

Ruby and Littlefoot both smiled at this display in unison. It felt like Specter was already an earnest member of their pack, and that for a long time. Littlefoot knew exactly what to do now. He and Ruby nuzzled each other as they approached their friends.

* * *

The returning predators were almost buried under claws, wings, feathers and scales of all colors and sizes. Chants of welcome and relief could be heard all around the place. Littlefoot tried to calm everyone down right away, but in the end accepted the warm welcome. Because as there slowly came back the silence, he knew who everyone would be interested in, next.

Only after everyone had settled down, Specter could see all eyes staring at him again. The adults with surprised expressions, while the children's eyes were wide open in fear. Just like on the first night. Only now it had a different reason. Their scents were quite a bit different as well, he noticed. And when he finally grew aware of the cause, Specter's head dropped a little.

His muzzle and black feathers were still almost completely covered in blood. The moonlight and shading made him look like a monster straight out of a nightmare. Even Chomper, who had only just arrived on the scene, looked uneasy at his sight.

Ruby noted to herself that when she had her first sleep story about the 'Hidden Runner', before she had found out the hidden runners were actually very nice and looked completely different from what the stories had made her think, this monster looked a lot like this.

This didn't go unnoticed by Specter, of course. He had completely dismissed how ghastly he must have looked like until he had seen, and smelled, the children's fear. He took a quick sniff of air before nodding at Littlefoot, who returned the gesture. After that, he sprinted off into the darkness to the nearest watering hole.

One pair of eyes, however, had been looking at Specter since his arrival with an expression of deep sorrow. Shortly afterwards, the light green fastbiter whom those eyes belonged to snuck away from the rest and followed his scent into the darkness.

* * *

It didn't take Specter long to find what he was looking for. Coming to a halt, he was standing in front of a wide strip of fresh water, its current ever so gently carrying some leaves with it. He wasted no time in wading into the cool liquid and submerging his whole body in it. As he was washing away the dried blood on his feathers, he allowed himself to float a little bit on the water. He noticed that it has become a lot easier for him to stay on the surface. Moving around in the water still felt awkward, but he found that it would be enough, should he ever be forced to swim.

"You love the water, too?"

He swung his head around to this new voice. He had completely ignored his surroundings, and was surprised to see Ducky standing there all of a sudden.

"Haven!" He exclaimed in his surprise before taking a small pause. "Well, uhm... I wouldn't say that I _love_ it, but... it's refreshing. So yeah, I definitely like it. The feeling of water around your body never changes, I guess. No matter who or whatever you are."

Ducky smiled at this. To her, water has always been a big part of her life. That never changed when she became a fastbiter.

Specter looked around himself and decided that he would be clean enough, so he quickly left the cool water, gave his body a few determined shakes and turned to face Ducky again.

"Why are you here?"

"You were looking so sad back there. You did! You did! So I decided to see if you're alright."

Specter smiled at that. He found that if this was how she always acted, then Ducky's warm words and unique form of speaking could even bring light into the darkest of situations.

"I guess nobody yet talked about what happened on the hunt, huh?"

Ducky shook her head.

"But everyone is looking forward to hearing you sing about this! They are! They are! But there must be something else... right?"

Specter nodded in return. It would take a lot of explaining and he would let his song do the main part of it, but he wanted Ducky to know right away.

"I'll give you the short version... The longneck had a threehorn friend with him."

Ducky looked at Specter in shock, and not because she wondered how that little detail could've possibly eluded Petrie on his two spotting flights but rather because she was putting the pieces together in her mind. Until recently, Specter had been covered in blood while Littlefoot, Ruby and Petrie only had slight stains around their mouths. Worse even, Littlefoot seemed to be injured a little bit while Ruby had this very unique scent radiating from her. It was the same scent back when everyone thought Littlefoot was about to die after Calin had slashed his throat.

 _But that must mean..._

Specter wasn't finished just yet, however.

"We took down the longneck together... I used a pointed stick on him, and thought that would be it... But then his friend showed up. He just... knocked Seeker and Ponder out with one attack. He was going to kill them... I had to do something! So I just... threatened his friend, but that horn-faced asshole just wouldn't react! And then... he stomped down where Seeker was. I couldn't see his body... I thought he had killed him so I just... I... I snapped. I lost control... I killed the longneck... I ripped him to pieces... And the threehorn as well. I can't even quite remember how I did it. It all happened so fast... I..."

He was cut off by Ducky's embrace.

It was a strange sight. The light green fastbiter, like all the other adult fastbiters of the pack, looked like an adolescent compared to Specter's tall form. She was only hugging a part of his flank but it still made him calm down noticeably. He had pushed all feelings aside after what he did. It was only now that he realized just how upset he really was about his first two kills, about having been forced to act like he had.

He had been forced to take a hostage and then two lives, to prevent two other lives from being taken. The most gruesome way to act, he thought to himself, but he also felt no remorse. He knew that he had to do it. Or he would've lost his mentor, a potential friend and then probably died himself. There had been no other option.

And Ducky, though Specter was yet unaware of her past and so was she of most of his, knew this. Not a day went by where she didn't remember her first killing blow. The mother flyer she had ripped to shreds in her effort to save her best friend. She had saved Petrie's life, no doubt, but there was a huge difference in being prepared to kill, taking another one's life willingly, and being forced to do so.

Both of the fastbiters standing here had been forced to do the latter. Specter even twice in the same confrontation.

Specter felt a lot better after opening himself up a little bit to Ducky, but he still felt kind of awkward in her continuing embrace. She was mated to this friendly but quiet blue raptor called Leap, after all. So he decided it would be best to just head back now.

He lowered his head and gave her a slight nuzzle, gently nudging her away from his side.

"Thanks... I really appreciate it. Come on, we should really go back now. I don't want the others to think I'm responsible for your absence as well."

Ducky nodded in return, and Specter noticed her scents of happiness and relief with a smile. Right before they both sprinted off into the darkness again.

"Oh, and while we're on our way..." He added. "Maybe you could tell me a little bit about how you sing a song around here."

* * *

All eyes were firmly planted on him. Specter was shifting uneasily, feeling the pressure of their looks on him, thinking about what was expected of him to do right now. Even Chomper, as blunt as the two-footer apparently sometimes could be, was eager to hear his song. Everyone was.

And although he remembered Ducky's few words on how to properly sing a song in this time, he still couldn't fully understand the exact concept.

 _Doesn't matter, I should just go for it and see what happens. Here goes nothing..._ He thought to himself as he raised his voice.

 **Never have I taken a life before, but my time had eventually come  
Seeker told me what to do, he prepared me for what needed to be done**

 **To take another one's life, leaving its flesh for me to eat  
The longneck came closer, not knowing that to me, he would be nothing but a treat  
**

 **We surprised our prey, I struck him down, expecting him to feed me swell  
Nobody knew, however, that he still had a friend with him as well  
**

 **The threehorn came charging in, twice had he eluded Spotter's careful eyes  
He attacked my two friends to kill them, his gaze cold as ice  
**

 **I stood there in silence, not knowing what I could do  
Then a voice from inside told me, that was when I knew  
**

 **But it was too late, the threehorn had struck both biters down  
And he went ahead, to kill the one colored in brown  
**

 **I charged into the clearing, I let the shadows hide my black cloak  
With horror in the longneck's eyes, I grasped onto his throat  
**

 **He screamed for his life, which I was about to take away  
But to my shock, it was not enough to keep the threehorn at bay  
**

 **He moved closer to my leader, he raised his foot high  
I was lost, seeing how this was Seeker's goodbye  
**

 **So I ripped through flesh, caused a scream into the night  
Yet the threehorn stomped down, only then turning around to the longneck's sight  
**

 **We both made up our minds, one last breath I did swallow  
I slashed the longneck's throat, now the threehorn's heart should follow  
**

 **I rose to my feet, the threehorn's charge left the trees in a sway  
It was him and me now, only I was left standing in his way  
**

 **I picked up my weapon, closed my eyes and left the stick upright in his path  
He had no time to react, my eyes open again, only the weapon a reminder of my wrath  
**

 **He impaled his throat with it, and facing his dead friend he fell  
Thus ends the story of two friends, the longneck's and the threehorn's as well**

Silence, yet noise. It was the silence that was deafening. It was as if everyone had suddenly stopped breathing, yet yelled in shock.

Specter grew increasingly nervous at his surroundings, so many carnivores staring at him, unmoving. He sat back down on his haunches as he expected a reaction by now. But none came. Absolutely none.

 _Did... I say something wrong? Sure, I... I didn't include this special chorus part Haven told me about, but... But I mostly did what she told me to do. Describing the hunt._

In what felt like an eternity to him, nobody seemed to move a muscle. Even Littlefoot and Ruby were staring at him in disbelief. Petrie had told them what he had observed from above, but to be hearing it from Specter himself was completely different. They had seen the story through his eyes now. His feelings, his pain and despair. But also a new side of him.

A sharptooth. A hunter. A killer. A cold, calculating Chooser of the Dead.

Then, finally, movement came back into the pack. Two little fuzzballs, a brown and reddish one, walked up to Specter. Biter and Swipe. They were immediately followed by all the other younglings and the adults, too. Within seconds, Specter was surrounded by a sea of claws, feathers and scales of many different colors.

He gulped audibly. The silence really crept him out, not to mention all the predators around him. This was already the second time in not even 24 hours that he truly feared for his life, the first time being when he had just met Littlefoot.

Biter and Swipe proceeded to come a few steps closer before finally coming to a halt. They both looked at their parents first, who gave them affirmative nods, then they looked up at the massive predator in front of them and both spoke in unison.

"Th... Thank you!"

Their sign of gratitude was soon followed by the chants of all the other younglings.

"That was awesome!"

"Can we hear the part again where you killed that threehorn? Please!"

"Daddy always told us that there is no way in surviving an adult threehorn without help!"

"Yeah!"

"Is it true? That you even closed your eyes?"

"Amazing!"

"You saved Seeker and Ponder!"

"How did you do that?!"

Specter was overwhelmed with relief, but he didn't want all this praise. He wanted none at all. Admittedly, the whole fight sounded way better in his song than it had been in reality.

"Please, children... I was lucky. Nothing more... One mistake and your parents and I all could have died there. I just hope I will never have to fight an angry horn-face again..."

He could've sworn seeing Cera flash a wide smirk of satisfaction for a few seconds, but she decided not to make a comment. Taunt, on the other hand, would not go easy on him just yet.

"For your own sake, I hope so as well. It can't have been anything other than luck when a few ankle-biter fuzzballs scare you _this_ much."

Everyone had noticed the scent of fear from Specter, of course. That comment earned Taunt an especially angry look from Ruby, but Specter had just the reply for that.

He smirked slightly at Taunt and gave him an imitation of that gesture humans knew as 'the middle finger' with his forelimb. To Specter's great amusement now, Taunt was seriously taken aback by the insulting gesture. The cheeky fastbiter apparently didn't know how to respond to that anymore. At least not instantly. Taunt has indeed never seen this gesture before, but he just knew it was an insult. Just like...

He smirked back and gave Specter his own, insulting signature gesture with the sickle claw on his foot. Which to Taunt's disappointment didn't work out as well as he had expected, as Specter seemed unable to make anything of this just yet.

Still, everyone had to chuckle at their antics, but there was yet another point on the agenda. It was Littlefoot who raised his voice next, after most of his pack had calmed down again.

"So, I would also like to announce that as of today, we have a new member in our pack."

Everyone looked at Specter again, but he didn't quite get the hint just yet.

"Really? Who is it? Isn't everyone here already a member of your pack?"

"That's right. Everyone except you." Littlefoot gave his smiling response.

"Me?" Specter needed a few more seconds to grasp the magnitude of that offer. Littlefoot had basically just offered him a place to stay, even though he knew him only for a day. He could only imagine how generous of an offer this really was. "Are... you sure? I mean... I don't have any experience yet, and... Like... Don't I need to bring you sort of an offering first and then ask for permission? And then pass a challenge or something? You would... take me in just like that?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes. But I consider the threehorn you saved me and Ponder from both of that. Or are there any objections?" Littlefoot carefully looked at every single one of the assembled packmembers. But nobody even thought about raising their voice, so he continued. "So yes, just like that. Do you accept?"

Specter hesitated for another moment, not quite sure if this would be a good decision, but finally made up his mind.

"I do. And thank you... For everything. I will never be able to repay this..."

"Don't mention it. I'm sure I'm speaking for everyone here when I say that it's the least we can do for you. Now that that's finished, I'm also sure the others would like to hear some more about you."

Specter looked around, seeing nods of excitement among the children. The adults were joining them in that gesture as well.

"It would be my pleasure. But as I've told you before, you will be in for a long night." He then concluded with a smile.

* * *

The pack was once again gathered around him, only this time a bit more organized. The children were all with their respective parents and everyone was sitting or lying in a relaxed manner. When he felt like he had everyone's attention, Specter began his question and answer session.

"So, I think it would be best if you guys could ask me some questions instead of me just telling you random stuff about myself. That way I can better think about exactly what I can tell you and what not. I know, this might..."

"Why would you tell us only some things and some others not? We want to hear everything!" Ambush interrupted.

"Yeah! Why not?" Pouncer joined his sister in her exclamation, right before both of them received a light slap from Cera's tail.

Specter chuckled slightly at that display of discipline before he continued.

"Because there are some things which are very complicated. Things that are dangerous, even. Some things that are best not to be mentioned. Believe me, I would love to tell you everything. But I just can't. Not yet... I'm just too uncertain about a lot of things... I'm sorry."

"It's ok, just tell us what you feel comfortable telling about." Ruby then said. "Maybe we should start with the simple things? Because it is always good to start with the simple things!"

Upon Specter's happy nod, Cera spoke up.

"Ok, here are some easy ones. What were you before? What did you look like, and what did you eat?"

"Well, my former kind are called 'humans'. They walk on two legs, too, but not exactly how everyone here does. Uhm... Imagine a 'fastbiter', but with a very short neck and sort of round head. Now imagine it doesn't have a tail and its body is upright. And while that fastbiter only walks on its legs, its arms are pretty long and more to the sides of its body. And it doesn't have any claws, and five fingers and toes instead of three and four respectively. Oh, and also, no feathers of course."

The gathered sharpteeth all looked at one another for a few seconds, right before massive laughter broke out for a moment as they all imagined this bizarre creature.

 _Man... this is way harder than I thought it would be. If only I could draw them a picture... No! If anything, not yet._

Specter couldn't help but smile himself. Now that he thought about drawing them a sketch of a human, imagining his former appearance, his description seemed even more unfitting.

In the midst of the laughter, though, one little voice spoke up.

"But... if humans don't have a tail, then how can they walk? And what are feathers?"

He waited patiently until everyone had calmed down before raising his voice again.

"Very good question, Aqua! Hmm... How about all of you grab onto your next one's back for a bit? What do you feel?"

The pack gave him an asking look first, but soon did as Specter pleased. All the fastbiters turned to their respective neighbor and went over their back. Only Chomper was utterly helpless. He had nobody right next to him, and obviously couldn't reach his own back with his short arms. Not that longer arms could've helped him anyway, as there was no dinosaur able to reach its own back with its arms. Specter just smiled at the Tyrannosaurus and waved him off. He wouldn't need to break his limbs to get the point, eventually.

After a while, Aqua, the little, light blue fastbiter, spoke up again.

"I can feel these things that are attached to most of us... and I can feel bones. But what has that to do with how humans walk?"

"Yes... but you're not just feeling any bones. These 'things that are attached to most of you' are called feathers by the way. But that is not the important thing. What you're feeling, the bones that run along your back and into your tail, is called your 'spine'. Or 'backbone' in simpler terms. And that's the secret. The backbone in a human's body has a very special shape. It's... kinda curvy, so it can carry the human's weight and that of his head when it is standing upright. Here, take a look at this..." He made use of his claws and scratched three little geometrical shapes into the ground. He figured that this was as far as he could go for now, but it would serve him well in explaining. "A human's head is the upper circle, the body the middle part, and where the legs and feet would be is represented by the lower circle."

The pack was amazed by this very simple form of imagery and geometry. They quickly understood where a human's head, body, legs and feet would be, even without a tail.

"Now, when your body looks like this, when you are walking upright, you just don't need a tail anymore. Hence the lack of it in humans." Specter took a small pause to take a look at the pack. They were all still very much interested in what he had to say, and this made him feel strangely happy inside. Explaining things has never been his strong suit or most liked kind of thing, after all. Having made sure of this, he continued. "But that only works because humans are not very big or heavy. I was considered quite tall, much taller than most of my friends were, and that means about as tall as an adult fastbiter, more or less. Adult fastbiters like you guys, of course. I would never have been able to live inside my own house if I would've been as big as I am now."

Instead of understanding nods, Breeze laughed slightly this time.

"You explain one thing only to mention two more things you will have to explain later on."

Spike supported his grey mate with an affirmative grunt, and so did some of the other fastbiters. Specter rolled his eyes. He would probably never get used to speaking like everyone else does.

"I'm sorry... A 'house' is the place where humans live, eat and sleep. Imagine it as a nice, warm cave with some light."

The understanding nods he now finally received encouraged him to move on to the next question.

"Now to our food... Humans are omnivores. Uhm... I guess 'half-teeth' is what you would call that. They can eat pretty much anything."

Spike's and Breeze's children took particular interest in that revelation.

"Awesome! They can eat treestars and meat as well! But how do they kill the leaf-eaters then? You said humans are small and have no claws! How do they hunt?" Nibble commented.

Specter sighed. This was one of the questions he would have to answer with extreme care. Telling the pack outright that in his time there wouldn't be any actual dinosaur 'leaf-eaters' or 'sharpteeth' anymore, that every single dinosaur was dead for millions of years, was not an option.

But, since he had already mentioned a cave, he figured it would be best to explain the human diet mostly based on humans who had actually lived in those. It would also spare him from overcomplicating things. For example, how would he explain the disgusting conditions of animals held in factory farming, or that modern hunters could've potentially used high-caliber rifles which could've even blown a Tyrannosaurus' brains out, he asked himself.

"That's not... entirely correct. Humans can't eat 'treestars'. I mean... sure, they can eat them without vomiting, but they taste horrible and won't make their stomachs full. So they mostly rely on meat. At least I did. I always liked meat. But still, I needed to eat a lot of green food, too. It's what you call 'balanced nutrition'. To be honest, if you take away the green food, humans are actually a lot like fastbiters." Specter paused there again, asking himself if describing cavemen instead of modern humans would be an honest thing to do, but ultimately decided to continue with this. "They hunt and live in packs, for a start. However, they only have a few 'sharp' teeth in their mouths, if you can even call them sharp. Their other teeth are all flat, so that they can chew. So what they would do for food is plan a hunt, and then the males would go out and kill stuff by using what you know as 'pointed sticks'. Yes, and then the other members of the pack, sometimes the females and elders as well, would go out and get some berries and grapes... uhm... 'sweet bubbles', for example."

"Why would they not let their females hunt?" Came the slightly annoyed and actually highly aggressive question from Cera. The other females of the pack nodded noticeably.

"Well, uhm... It's not like the males wouldn't let the females hunt because they are females. But you have to understand that human females are weaker than males. Most of the time, a male human is bigger, faster, stronger and more intelligent on a hunt than a female. It's just how it is. The males do the hunting, the dangerous stuff, while the females care for the children and maybe sometimes go out to collect some berries. Males and females think differently, and females are just not made for anything in relation to active hunting."

Cera reluctantly accepted that response, but not without letting out an audible "Hmpf!"

 _I'm sure glad feminism won't be a thing for the next 60 million years..._ Specter thought to himself.

"But that is so unfair! It is! It is! Females are not weaker than males! No, no, no!"

And then Ducky's sudden outcry shook him out of his thoughts in an instant. This came truly unexpected. He was shocked by the anger her voice carried. Her scents, too, were dominated by that emotion. But there was also some curiosity and confusion in them. Specter knew that human society must've seemed anything but sophisticated to these primeval predators. The irony in this was ridiculous, even though he was referring to prehistoric humans as well.

"The world is not exactly a fair place, Haven." Specter then started again. "But I still believe we all have our own place on this earth. Have you ever thought about how some Pteranodons... Uh, 'flyers' behave? I don't know how good you're on terms with those, I guess, 'leaf-eater flyers', but... If you know a flyer like that, am I right in assuming that he or she has never met his or her father?"

He received extremely surprised, almost shocked nods in return, sad ones from the Cearadactylus family. Especially Petrie looked anything but happy after being confronted with that, and seeing how his mate, Soar, gave him a comforting nuzzle and his children moved closer to their father, Specter could only draw the most logical conclusion.

 _Wait... You, Spotter? Really? You've never met your father? But you're a carnivore, and your children are all... Unless... Could it be that you're one of the changed ones as well?_

Specter felt deep regret about having even brought this up for no apparent reason. But he wanted to get his actual point across, so he continued.

"See? It's because that flyer's mother left her mate to care for her children alone, such as it is normal for their kind. You think that's fair? I think it isn't, but it is how it is. Same goes for humans. Nobody decides that females can't do the hunting, and yes, of course females are not weaker or less intelligent than males in absolutely everything. It's just that males and females have different roles. There are things best to be done by a female, while there are others best to be done by a male. Nobody wants to insult a female, but at the same time nobody would want to unnecessarily risk her life in a hunt because she can't run as fast as a male, or has as much endurance or strength. Or would you send some of your children to their death, knowing that some of them are born weaker than the others of the opposite gender?"

His last sentence struck Ducky like a pointed stick to her heart. Of course she has always thought about Petrie's father and why he would've left his son and other children behind. But upon Specter mentioning her own children, she pushed this aside and just looked down at the ground. She would need some time to digest all this.

When Ducky had calmed down again, she looked up at Specter and gave him an understanding nod, letting him continue.

"Alright, I think that is a pretty good description of my former kind. They are a bit like fastbiters but lack the claws, and of course look completely different. No feathers and all. That's the payoff for what's inside their heads."

Almost in unison, loud exclamations of "Huh?" echoed through the pack.

Specter tapped on his own head with one of his claws three times.

"Their minds. For their size, humans have the largest brain of any creature that ever lived. Humans are the smartest creatures ever." Immediately after saying this, Cera was about to interrupt again to make a remark, but Specter would have none of it. He definitely wanted to get this next point across. Why exactly we wanted to do that, he didn't really know himself. Maybe it was just his slightly negative view on his very own, past species, he figured. "But they are also the most dangerous ones."

The pack was once again wrapped in complete silence.

"You see, humans lack a lot of the tools that sharpteeth have. They don't have eyes that can see in the dark, they're nowhere near as fast as a fastbiter, and their bodies are weak and fragile compared to everything else. They also can't smell feelings, or if somebody is telling the truth or a lie. Humans rely on the sound and structure of words and gestures and what they personally believe in. But that..." Specter looked Littlefoot directly in the eye now. "...can be twisted. It can be adjusted. It can be corrupted. A lie can be corrupted into the truth, and the truth can be corrupted into a lie, to the point where there is no true or false anymore. That is the point at which you just have to listen to your own heart to find the truth. Seeker, you wanted an answer on what I did on this morning and how I did it. This is it. That's unfortunately all I can and will tell you. For your own good and safety. I don't know why I've even brought it up in the first place, but yeah... Anyway, I've told you too much already."

Several moments of silence went by until Specter decided to finish what he had started.

"Do you understand now why my presence here is a problem? Why I would like to talk to those 'rainbowfaces'? They are probably the only ones that could possibly understand and explain all this to me. I just should not be here. I've heard that some of you have been turned into what you are now, just like me, and maybe that should never have happened either. But you had a chance to adapt. You were always dinosaurs, and that's why you still belong in this place. You always did. I, however, should not even be here right now, no matter if I was a 'sharptooth' or a 'flattooth' or whatever else. I wasn't a dinosaur, and shouldn't be one now. I could cause great trouble if I accidentally reveal secrets nobody should know about. And the longer I stay here, the more likely that will become."

The pack was stunned, Littlefoot was actually the only one who kept his composure. He had already somewhat expected something like this, though it was hard for him to explain why. He just felt like anything concerning those Stones was always connected to the rainbowfaces. After all, he knew them better than pretty much anyone else in his pack.

But that was something he wanted to avoid discussing openly.

"I understand. Alright everyone, I think we have burdened Specter quite enough for today. Let's all go to sleep for now. We can talk more tomorrow, if we really have to."

The two fastbiters, Littlefoot and Specter, eyed one another for a few moments before they almost simultaneously gave each other a friendly and understanding nod. The rest of the pack needed a bit more time to digest everything that had been said, but in the end they all agreed unanimously on their leader's word.

They soon gathered in their sleeping spaces and Specter rested himself among them, too. This was now his pack as well, after all. He didn't find sleep all too soon, however. Opening himself up like he had caused great relief on the one hand, but on the other hand it brought just as much concern and uncertainty with it.

Yes, the pack was now informed of the most basic things, and yes, Littlefoot had accepted his rough explanation and his need to keep his secrets safe for now. But that still didn't make him feel comfortable. That was all he could've hoped for at this point, however. And that was at least a start.

With these thoughts leaving his mind, Specter slowly drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

 **And this is how I would like to conclude the third chapter.**

 **I hope you like it and if you have made it through all of these words without skipping a single one, then I should buy you a beer or cola sometime ;)**

 **Special thanks going out to David (The Amazing Rhombus) himself! Without his continuous support, honest criticism and ideas, entire passages would not have been possible like this. For example the way Specter perceived colors now or the conversation between him and Ducky.**

 **Finally, I must also make you aware that the "song" is obviously heavily inspired by the song Biter and Swipe are singing in Chapter 18 of The Amazing Rhombus' "Songs of the Hunters", although I must explicitly stress that I didn't mean to make the endings sound so alike. You will just have to trust my word when I say it was pure coincidence. I wanted to change the ending in my version to make it sound different, but in the end I have decided against it. It sounds just as I want it to sound right now.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy the newest chapter and I hope to be publishing the next one sometime around the end of next week.**

 **Take care and have a nice day!**

 _ **Revised**_


	5. Chapter 4: Fear

**Chapter 4: Fear**

 ** _"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." - Paulo Coelho_**

 _"I'm... home?!"_

 _He couldn't believe it, but the evidence was overwhelming. He was back home inside his house, lying in his soft, warm bed. He felt strangely sad and surprised about all this, though. The last dreams he had were years back in his childhood days, and even then he only very rarely actually dreamed. But he liked it this way. He remembered the two nightmares he had in that time for all his life that would follow, and he rather didn't dream at all than have nightmares once in a while. It was the lesser of the two evils to him._

 _He couldn't quite remember the dream, or whatever it actually was, he had just awoken of. Something about him being in a strange place, being a strange, primitive creature himself. But he was indifferent about that. To him, dreams were wishful thinking, and he didn't want that. He was a realist. But even in his wide awake state, something seemed very odd. Something unnerved him to the very core._

 _"Why... am I not feeling sleepy at all? The sun isn't even up yet. And why...? Ugh... Doesn't matter... What time is it?"_

 _It was very dark inside his room, although the shutters were open a little bit, but it was enough to make out the various objects inside. He looked around, noticing that everything was there. The small nightstand with his cellphone and tablet, and the big, white sphere lamp on it. His black leather chair in front of his black flatscreen TV. His black gaming console behind that. His two big wardrobes. His two black guitars. His two little shelves with the various books he had read in his life, and the many objects resting on top of them. His various posters on the walls. And lastly, the simple clock hanging on the wall above where the two shelves were situated._

 _But he wanted to know what time it was now, not how his room looked like. So he tried turning the sphere lamp on._

 _Nothing happened._

 _He then tried switching his tablet and cellphone on._

 _Nothing as well._

 _"What... the fuck... is going on here?"_

 _He jumped out of his bed, immensely surprised to see that he was completely naked, given that he always slept with at least his shorts. But he didn't mind that too much for now, as his eyes were now slowly adapting to the darkness. He could see most objects in his room clearly, despite not wearing his glasses and in spite of the overall darkness._

 _This realization, however, never reached his mind as his face suddenly fell into an expression of utter horror._

 _All the posters on the walls were empty. Nothing was on them but blackness instead of various pictures and images. He blinked another few times, shaking his head, but they stayed the same. Finally, his eyes switched over to the analog clock on the wall. Its hands were missing._

 _All this made his heart start beating violently, and he was slowly starting to panic._

 _Not wasting any more of the time that didn't seem to exist anymore for some reason, he opened the door to his room, jumped outside and swiftly walked towards the main entrance. He noticed that the doors to both of his parents' rooms were already open, so he deduced that they must have been awake as well. How could they not have been, he asked himself quickly, when all this strange stuff was happening._

 _Within moments he stood in front of the large wardrobes, which were covered in mirrors, in the house's lobby. He could see himself clearly, every little detail, in those mirrors. His short, blond hair and beard. The tattoo on the side of his upper left arm. His tall, lean body. And his green eyes._

 _Just as he was done with looking at himself, though, he looked over at the entrance door to his home. The two windows embedded in it were made out of milk glass, so he couldn't see through them, but there was definitely light outside. Bright and deep red light._

 _"It's... now sunrise already? How...?"_

 _Still ignoring the fact he was naked, he quickly went to the door, almost ripped it open and ran outside onto the porch._

 _He wished that he hadn't._

 _The sky was burning. It literally was on fire, illuminating the world below. It looked like as if the world was going to end, consumed by the very sun that had spent warmth and granted life for the past billions of years. But despite all this, there was complete silence. The only sign of life still existing seemed to be him right now. And maybe he actually found some beauty in this, as horrifying and surreal as this was.  
_

 _And all of this, absolutely everything he had felt before, vanished at once, as soon as he looked at the ground in front of his feet. His eyes went wide, his breaths starting to get clipped, and his legs starting to shake._

 _"No... No... How...?"_

 _Two humans, male and female. His parents. Or rather what was left of them. They were both dead, lying in a pool of blood with their bodies horribly disfigured.  
_

 _It was right at this moment when his ear-piercing scream cut through the silence, a defying scream of anger, terror and sadness. He broke down on his knees, feeling no pain as he hit the ground, trying to embrace the two corpses. But before he could even touch any of them, the two bodies started to dissolve. Their dust was carried away with the wind before he had even realized what just happened._

 _He just continued to kneel on the ground, staring in utter shock and disbelief at the place where the corpses of his parents had just been. Not even a single grain of ash, not even a single hair was left. Nothing was left of them, only the blank cobblestones on the ground._

 _And that was when he suddenly noticed a large shadow originating from his right side. He slowly got up, shaking and without any real emotions left, and turned around._

 _His green eyes met the yellow eyes of a massive Utahraptor, its black feathers and golden crest slightly swaying back and forth in the light breeze. The big and dangerously sharp claws on its forelimbs were still slightly dripping with blood. The blood of his parents, he could smell that. He had no idea how, but he just could. Did it even matter? There was a gargantuan raptor before him, almost three meters tall and over ten meters long. Now he would just die, too.  
_

 _However, the raptor didn't attack him. It just stood there in silence, eyeing the human, not moving any other muscle._

 _He was petrified. Before him stood a raptor, around three or maybe even four heads taller than him, and it was just looking at him. Directly in his eyes. A foreign voice inside his head told him that he wasn't in danger, and the raptor somehow looked familiar to him, albeit not from his point of view. But fear and horror had long since taken over his mind. He slowly raised one of his feet and took a cautious step backwards._

 _Only for the raptor to raise his opposing foot and take one, also cautious step forwards._

 _He immediately stopped in shock, and so both creatures were standing still once again. None of them moved a muscle. The feelings of fear and horror were slowly fading from his mind by now, however. Something else was forming in their place. He saw something in the raptor's piercing, yellow eyes. He saw something familiar, something he just knew._

 _He shook his head left and right._

 _Only for the raptor to mirror each of his moves. It turned its massive head right, then left._

 _Slowly, he started tilting his head forwards to take a look at the ground again. He couldn't see the raptor doing the same anymore as his eyes were now firmly planted on the ground. Something seemed odd with his shadow. And then it hit him like a rock. The shadow he had thought would be originating from the raptor alone came from himself, too._

 _His shadow and the raptor's were one._

 _As if the world had waited for him to realize exactly that, everything around him went black within one blink of his eyes. He was alone again, the darkness his only companion. By now, he just wished that all of this would stop already. However, the situation he was in right now seemed awfully familiar. And the memories of his past days slowly started returning to him._

 _With unsure voice, still filled with anger and confusion, he yelled into the darkness._

 _"Why?! Why are you doing this to me?!"_

 _No response came. Just as he was about to give up all hope, maybe even snap, a light could be seen in the distance. His mind would not let the past memory in, but he just knew that he had been here before. After a few more moments, a female voice finally responded._

 _"I am not doing anything to you, young one. You are doing all this to yourself."_

 _"Then how do I make it stop?!"_

 _"By accepting your fate. What were your words again? I believe your viewpoint on things you can't change is 'It is how it is', isn't it?"_

 _"How...? How do you know that?"_

 _"Because I have been watching over you. Ever since you arrived."_

 _"Then what is my purpose? I can only bring death and destruction through my presence."_

 _The voice laughed lightly. It was the same motherly voice he had already heard once before. But where? And on what occasion?_

 _"What does fire mean to you?"_

 _"Pain... destruction... and death..." He answered in his current state of mind.  
_

 _"You are lying..."_

 _"How dare...!"_

 _"You are lying to yourself because you are scared, and you refuse to see the obvious things. Everything has a bad side. But is that really all there is to it? I know you like the darkness. You feel safe in it, so why do you also feel scared in its embrace? Now I ask you again, what does fire mean to you?"_

 _It took him some time to finally give his honest opinion._

 _"Light... hope... warmth... and life."_

 _"Then I believe you do know your purpose in this world, after all. Now wake up, Specter."_

 _The light seemed to grow brighter and larger all of a sudden. And soon, everything was embraced by it._

* * *

Specter's eyes sprang open again.

He was still breathing heavily and his heart was pumping like crazy. His new body wouldn't allow him to sweat, but he figured that if he still were a human, he would've been drenched in it. He closed his eyes again, trying to control his breathing rhythm.

 _It was only a dream. It was only a dream. It was only a dream..._ He thought to himself over and over again.

After a few minutes then, his breathing and heartbeat normalized, so he slowly stood up and took a careful look around. It was early in the day and the sun was not up yet. He could see the whole pack still sleeping peacefully, with himself among them.

 _I'm still here... Hmm... At least I didn't scream or anything..._

Since he was fully awake now, he decided it would be a good idea to take a walk and contemplate the things on his mind. It would also give him the chance to explore this new world. The last day had been very hectic, and he didn't have any time to look around, not even just for a bit. From early on in the morning to the following night he had been occupied with learning the basics of survival from Littlefoot, going on his first hunt and trying not to get killed by a rampaging threehorn.

But before he would leave, Specter curiously looked at all the fastbiter families in their sleep. Littlefoot and Ruby, with Biter and Swipe. Cera and Taunt, with Ambush, Pouncer and Sprint. Spike and Breeze, with Sniffer and Nibble. And Ducky and Leap, with Fisher, Verok, Tranquil, Dodger and Aqua. Each of the children cuddled their respective parents' feathered bodies for warmth and comfort. At least the ones that had been gifted with feathers, namely the former gang of seven, minus Chomper and Petrie. Regardless of that, though, all of the little fastbiters were covered in soft fuzz, meaning that they would eventually grow those primitive feathers as well.

Specter himself could only smile at that sight.

 _Hmm... So the adults with feathers must be all those that touched a Stone like I did... Yeah, must be. Why else would the others be unfeathered? To think that this might be part of the reason why there's so little evidence about feathered Utahraptors..._

He couldn't see Petrie and Soar, and their children Dive, Lift and Valaria, but he figured they must've been doing just as fine in their nest somewhere nearby.

Not wanting to wake any of them and start trouble so early, Specter carefully rolled over on his feet, stood up and slowly snuck away from the rest until he would reach a safe distance that would allow him to walk normally or sprint again. He was surprised how, despite his massive body and rather high weight, he was still able to move around in almost complete silence.

 _Huh! Well, hollow bones lead to high agility and low weight... at least they have a few advantages._ He thought to himself. It was a bit ridiculous that the moderately extensive knowledge he actually had about dinosaurs would come in handy only at the point at which he had become one himself, but he figured it was probably somehow meant to be this way.

When he was finally out of the pack's hearing range, he took a deep breath and picked up the pace a little. In doing so, he just had to admire the beauty of this place. It was completely different from his time, but it was somehow still all the same nonetheless. The plants and trees were much taller and denser, and there were plants he didn't even know had ever existed. But not only the flora was different. The dominant chirping of birds was mostly replaced by the distant screeches of some flyers, and the several insects flying around also seemed much bigger and mostly alien to him. In the end, however, nature was still nature. And that would never change. He was still part of it, just now a lot more in harmony.

 _But just where in the world am I? This isn't Europe anymore, that's for sure. Way too exotic... Though, Europe has changed a lot, too, in 60 million years, so... Well... I'm a Utahraptor, so... this must be the prehistoric America then. But where in America?_ Specter let out a sad sigh before he finished his thoughts. _As if it would matter now... I just need to stay alive long enough to meet up with those rainbowfaces...  
_

Following that, he resumed his exploration trip. He spent at least an hour just walking around in this place he was now supposed to call home. On his way, he even found several markings with the scents of Littlefoot, Ruby, Cera and Taunt.

 _Oh, urine markings... Only a few days old, I think. Guess this is where the territory ends. Damn, Seeker really knows how to pick one. This is huge, even for such a big pack... Hmm... I should probably head back now. Maybe they're already up?_

He turned straight around and was just about to start going back when his mouth fell agape. In the distance to his left, he could see a huge rock formation with a visible vantage point sticking out from it.

 _Hmm... I wonder..._

Not thinking any further, he sprinted off towards it.

* * *

It took him some time to reach the overlook, which was situated high above the ground. From up here, he could oversee almost the whole territory of his pack. He could see the gigantic landscape, which was densely covered in trees and tall fern. He could see the huge mountains on the horizon. He could even see the distant, multicolored forms of his pack.

Specter sat down on his haunches and observed the predators for a little while.

 _Looks like they are all awake now. I should really get back soon. Don't want them to worry about me for no reason..._

The massive, purple form of Chomper was easily discernible as well. He was close by the pack again, but minding his own business right now, it seemed. Specter then noticed that a few fastbiters were not with the pack anymore. At least five adults were missing.

 _Hm? Guess they're already..._

"There you are!"

Ruby's sudden appearance behind him made Specter almost jump. He quickly flexed his neck around to look at her.

"Ponder! I, uh..."

"We were worried sick about you!" Ruby sternly continued. "We have been looking for you for quite some time now! For quite some time now we have been looking for you!"

"I... I'm sorry, Ponder, I didn't mean to upset any of you." Specter looked apologetic at Ruby and somehow even quite submissively. "I woke up early today. You were all still sleeping, so... I figured it might be a good time for me to take a look around. After all, this seems to be my new home now."

Ruby had a stern expression on her face to go along with her voice, but she also looked concerned. A lot. It took her a while to respond.

"That is not why we were worried. We noticed your scents around the place where you have been sleeping... We smelled anger, despair... and fear."

An embarrassed look started to appear on Specter's face.

 _Did I... wet myself during that stupid dream?!_

He didn't want to find out, so he just tried to steer the conversation into another direction.

"I had a pretty bad... uhm... 'sleep story'... But how did you find me here so soon?"

Ruby's stern look softened up a lot by now and soon turned into surprise, curiosity and compassion.

"You're sitting in my Thinking Place."

How she spoke the name 'Thinking Place' alone implied that this place was something sacred to Ruby, so Specter quickly tried to apologize for his intrusion.

"Oh! I'm sorry Ponder, I didn't know this was it. I saw this overlook from the distance and thought I might find some peace up here. I should be leaving..."

He tried to stand up but felt some pressure on his back. Ruby now stood right next to him and gently pushed him back down a little bit.

"It's ok. Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. If you had, I would not have come here to look after you."

She sat down by his side, and both fastbiters gazed into the distance for a little while before Ruby took the word again.

"Do you want to tell me about that sleep story?"

Specter didn't respond immediately. This was one of the very few dreams he remembered as if he had just awoken from it. Obviously he just had awoken from it this morning, but still. It had all felt so real and yet so disgustingly strange in this dream. He remembered that dream, every single, however little detail of it, and he had to hold back his bitter sobs as he finally gave his answer, as all those details flooded his mind again.

"I was... back home... in my place. A human again. But everything seemed... different... I'm sorry, Ponder, but you wouldn't understand... even if I explained it to you for two days straight. But... it was very dark, and then I suddenly saw light. I went on, and then... I saw my reflection. It was me, as if nothing ever happened. But then I went outside, and... The sky... it was burning. There was fire everywhere above. And then... Then I saw my parents..." At this point, he really had to hold back the tears that were forming in his eyes. "...they were both dead."

It pained Ruby to ask this question, not to mention how taken aback she was by Specter's sleep story in the first place, but she just had to know.

"Did... you... kill them?"

She expected Specter to have an outburst now, but he kept his composure for the better part.

"I... No... No, of course not! They were just lying there... in their own blood. Something had torn them apart... I tried to embrace... what was left, but... their bodies turned to ash before I could even touch them."

Ruby was slightly relieved to hear that he didn't actually kill his own parents in his sleep story. Still, a sleep story like that was disgusting, even for sharptooth standards that tended to be bloody. And she, too, had to hold back her forming tears now. She didn't even want to imagine what that must have been like for him, seeing his own parents like that and then trying to embrace them one last time, only for them to turn into ash and disappear.

"Then I noticed this shadow... I turned around and saw this... black 'fastbiter' standing behind me. It was me... Myself... What I am right now. The blood of my own parents on his... My... claws..."

At his point, Specter could not hold back any longer. A select few tears started running down his face while he still tried to control himself.

And neither could Ruby. She just stared at him in shock as she started remembering the sleep story she had, the night she turned into a fastbiter. Specter's sleep story seemed familiar, but her parents had never appeared in her own. But seeing the massive predator next to her weep like this pressed her to act.

She stood up and embraced him, hesitating a bit before speaking again.

"I... I can't imagine..."

But Specter wasn't finished yet, even in his current state.

"Everything went black after that... Then I heard this voice talking to me. She... talked about my purpose in this world. About accepting my fate. About my fear. I don't even know who it was..."

Silence fell over the two weeping fastbiters.

Ruby could not comprehend how all of this could have happened. But she knew it was true for the overwhelming part. Littlefoot himself had told her a few times about his mother's guidance in his sleep stories, even though she was long since gone from this earth. So maybe Specter had encountered the same phenomenon?

But for now, both of them just stayed how they were for a few minutes. After that, Specter finally stood up and detached himself from Ruby's embrace. He took a few deep breaths before turning to face her, bowed down his head and nuzzled her dearly.

"Thank you... for being here. I guess... I really needed that."

Ruby accepted the gesture, but couldn't bring out a single word.

"Let's go back now. The others have worried enough about me... I shouldn't be so much of a problem to all of you... And... I hope you don't mind if I would prefer to keep this between us?" Specter finally said.

Ruby, too, had to take a deep breath until she could finally give him a slight smile.

"Of course not. Let's go. Give me just a moment."

Specter looked at her curiously as she walked towards the edge of the overhang and stopped right in front of it.

 **Roar! Screech! Roar!**

Several moments of silence went by, until an answer came from the distant fastbiters of the pack.

 **Roar!**

Ruby turned around and saw the surprise in Specter's eyes.

"I've told them that I have found you, so they know that you have been found."

"Just when I thought nothing could surprise me anymore." Specter retorted sarcastically.

She didn't need to force a smile onto her face this time, and with that, the two predators started their walk back to their pack.

But Ruby still had something on her mind that has bothered her for quite some time now, and it would conveniently take them a while to get back to where the rest of the pack would be. So she already prepared herself mentally for another confrontation, one that could potentially turn out to be quite intense.

 _You better not be one of them, Specter... No! After all you did for us... You are the real thing... It must be true what you said. Why would you want to harm us? But I have to make sure! I'm sorry, but I just have!  
_

* * *

Ruby and Specter have been on their way for quite some time now, so Ruby figured now would be the best time to just ask what was on her mind. But she wanted to do this very carefully. She knew Specter trusted her now, or at least she hoped so, but she didn't want to lose that trust because of her false accusations. She went over everything in her mind a few more times before finally speaking up.

"Specter, you... were not telling the whole story yesterday, were you?"

Specter looked at her with a surprised expression on his face.

"What... do you mean? I've told you guys everything I can afford to tell. Maybe I even crossed the line I've set myself a bit."

He used his claws to scratch three imaginary circles into the air, to which Ruby could only sigh.

"What do you know about fake-faces?"

"Fake... faces...? Hmm... I guess, as much as you do. Someone who talks good... but means bad. Someone who deceives others with nice talk... only to do bad things to them later on. That someone would be a 'fake-face', right?"

"Exactly. But do you also know how sharpteeth can see through them?"

"Uhm... examining their scents, I guess."

"Yes, only that you cannot smell if it's the truth or a lie when they are talking. You cannot smell anything at all."

Specter frowned heavily after hearing this.

"I see that Seeker told you about the little 'thing' I tried on him, didn't he?"

Ruby looked at the ground for a second. This conversation was going exactly in the direction where she never wanted it to go, the tone in Specter's voice changed too much for her to think otherwise. But now it was too late to just quit.

"He did, but only very briefly when you were occupied with Path at your introduction. That is part of the reason why I didn't want you to be here with us at first. And also why I decided to attend your hunt. I wanted to see if you can be trusted. And I could not have seen it if I would not have been there."

"And...? Can I be trusted?" Specter asked neutrally, but at the same time expectantly. He expected only one answer to this, of course.

"I don't know that for myself yet."

But this made him have to hold back an angry outburst. He had risked his own life for Littlefoot and Ruby. He had even told the whole pack a lot about his past. Things he had never planned on actually telling or showing. What more could Ruby be expecting from him?

He noticed that it was way harder for him now to retain his calm demeanor. The side of his mind that belonged to the predator he now was suggested him to go as far as kill Ruby for that statement. It told him that this would be necessary. If Ruby decided to leave him behind in a fight because she refused to trust him, he would be as good as dead.

He was disgusted with himself that he had actually considered that option, if only for a split second.

No, Ruby had comforted him in a time where he needed it most. She had been there for him. She had no obligation to do so, but she still did. There must have been something else on her mind, so he checked her scents.

 _Hmm... It's not entirely distrust... It's more like she's unsure about my convictions. But... why? Maybe I missed something...? Wait... Of course! The part with the 'fake-faces'. It was extremely subtle, but she... Huh... She really did well, but not quite well enough. Still... She really is something else... Maybe I'll teach her one day.  
_

"I see you're trying to use my own trick against me, Ponder. Impressive."

Ruby's eyes widened. She had not expected Specter to see through her that fast. And Specter immediately noticed her surprise, of course.

"What? Did you already forget what I told you and everyone else just yesterday? Humans are the smartest creatures ever, and the most dangerous ones. And technically, I'm still a human inside my head. So out with the truth already. What are you getting at?"

Both of them stopped their movement at once. Ruby hesitated for a few more moments. She had already lost his trust with those accusations, she thought to herself, so she could do this the straightforward way now, even though there had never been any real anger in Specter's voice.

"When you told everyone about your past, about 'humans', I noticed it. Your 'trick'. You did not manage to keep it up the whole time, only in some parts. I just wanted to know why. Why did you lie about your past? About your own kind? I have hated fake-faces for my whole life! My father nearly got killed by one! And you were acting exactly like one yourself! I had to make sure..."

Specter's face took on a more neutral expression. What was he so afraid of? His secrets would be in good hands with the pack. But the reality was harsh. Way too harsh to tell it in front of multiple, happy fastbiter families. And apart from that, it was only now that he truly acknowledged Ruby's impressive way of thinking. Her dry logic. He would make an exception for her.

"You will understand why, I promise. But first, know that I at no point lied to any of you. I was telling the truth, but adjusted it. Just as you did with your statement about fake-faces. You did quite well, but I noticed what you did there. You didn't believe in what you said." Ruby gave him an admitting nod, and Specter continued. "And you're sure you want to hear the truth? No matter how harsh it is? Because I can tell you, it is."

"Yes, I want to hear all of it." Ruby instantly responded. "How can I truly know something, if I don't know the truth about that something?"

"Fine... But this will be painful. In every way imaginable. And you must promise me to keep this to yourself. If you don't want to hurt someone else with that knowledge, that is. I highly doubt your children would take it well. Or most of the adults, actually. What I'm going to tell you would make even Stern Claw cry for days."

Ruby gulped, but gave him a nod.

"I promise."

Specter did so, too, sat down and gestured for her to do the same. When both of them were sitting, facing one another, he raised his voice again.

"Where do I even start? See, I've already told you that I do not belong in this place, but this is only half of the truth. I'm also pretty sure that I do not belong in this time. By an enormous margin."

"How 'enormous'?" Ruby asked soon after.

"About 65 million years."

Ruby did not know what these numbers meant and neither could she understand how this would be possible, but she already guessed that at least the numbers must have been really, really, really big.

"Now, Ponder, have you ever wondered why humans look so different? From you and what I am now? From 'longnecks' and 'threehorns'? From 'swimmers' and 'flyers'? I described my old self to all of you as best as I could. So, how do you think that's possible? Why do humans look so different from 'sharpteeth', 'flatteeth' or 'half-teeth'?"

This was the first time Ruby really thought about it. Yes, why exactly were humans supposed to look so different from her? She couldn't find an answer, so Specter went a bit further.

"What do you know about evolution?"

"Well... My parents often told me a lot about how everything in our world is constantly changing, back when I was still a fastrunner. So I think this 'evolution' is the reason why we eventually had feathers and looked like we did... right?"

"Yes, you could say it that way. It is a lot more complex but... yeah, you understand the basic concept. I mean... It's interesting that the Stone gave only the changed fastbiters feathers apparently, while nature took over again when your children hatched... Uhm... Never mind that. So, how can a creature like a human that has no tail or feathers, not your sense of smell, not your sharp teeth, not your dangerous claws, evolve from a creature that has all these traits? Or from any of the other creatures that live here?"

"I... don't know."

Specter let out a very heavy sigh. This was it. The moment of truth.

"Because we are all going to die one day."

And he was surprised to hear himself say 'we'. Although his body was that of a Utahraptor now, he still considered himself a human in some way. As with many unforeseen things in his life, he just tried to make the best out of it.

Ruby, however, seemed not surprised at all. She seemed ready to laugh out loud.

"That was the secret? Specter, I already know that one day I will..."

"No! That is not how I meant it!" Specter quickly interrupted her.

Ruby was stunned into silence by his stern voice, and Specter should soon elaborate. He had to concentrate to the maximum, as he still needed to get used to this time's vocabulary, but in the end, he finished formulating what he wanted to say and continued without a pause.

"I don't know when it will happen, maybe it will be thousands of years, seasons, whatever, from now, maybe it will be tomorrow, but it will happen. On this one day, there will be flying rocks falling from the sky. And with them will be one flying rock, so big that it will make the whole sky seemingly disappear. It will be many times the size of this territory, and it will hit this earth with a speed that would be unthinkable of even for a fastbiter or the fastest flyer there ever was. And almost everyone on this earth will die when that happens, you understand? The sky will go dark for multiple seasons, and whoever actually survived the flying rock itself will starve or die because there will be no more light from the Bright Circle and no more food. The leaf-eaters will die because the plants won't have enough light, and the sharpteeth will die because the leaf-eaters will die. It's a chain reaction that will not stop until even the last one is dead. There will be no more summer or spring. There will be only one single cold time in darkness. Only some small flyers, bellydraggers, and other minor creatures like these ground fuzzies will survive. So, mostly the small, feathered or fuzzy creatures that can live off the little food available then. They will live on to where I came from. These little creatures that will roam the sky in my time are the last of our kind. We call them 'birds'. They are, if you want to call them that, the last dinosaurs. Or at least what's left of them. This is what your future, our future, will look like. And before you even ask. No, I don't know how to stop it. It can't be stopped. It will just happen one day."

Specter had spoken all these words without even looking at Ruby. He had his eyes closed. He didn't want to see her cry anymore, and telling her all of this pained him as well. But she had demanded to know, and this was the unaltered truth. He wouldn't blame himself for her feelings. He had warned her often enough that the truth would hurt.

Only now he opened his eyes again, and his and Ruby's glances met. To Specter's big astonishment, she was looking straight in his eyes, having not shed any more tears. He couldn't read that expression of hers, though, but that did not surprise him at all. She must have been in the process of digesting all of this, he noted to himself.

But as the moments went by, none of them moved a muscle. Specter was starting to worry about Ruby's mental state, so he finally stood up, lowered his body in front of her and placed both of his clawed forelimbs on her shoulders.

"The truth hurts, Ponder. You must've known that before, but it's even more horrible when you know that you can't change it, isn't it?" He said, and forced a slight smile on his face.

Ruby only nodded at him, still deeply caught in her thoughts. After a few more seconds, however, she finally began to talk.

"I'm sorry..."

Specter resisted the urge to laugh.

"For what?"

"For not trusting you."

"It's ok. I didn't exactly make it easy for you guys... Besides, trust is not something that should be given to you easily. You have to fight for it and earn it. Sometimes in blood... some other times by just telling the truth." Specter rose to his full height again and turned towards the direction they had been traveling in until recently. "Come on now. I've had my fair share of the truth for today, I think. For some reason, I can't wait for Taunt to destroy some of my grey matter with his shit talk."

Now Ruby truly had to laugh again for a moment. She couldn't understand at all what this 'grey matter' was supposed to be, but Specter had somehow insulted Taunt, and that was good enough for her. She stood up as well and both fastbiters soon were on their way again.

* * *

"I see our newest friend was even so scared that..."

 **Smack!**

"Ow! What was that for?!"

Cera straightened out her tail again and gave her mate an indifferent gaze.

"Oh, I just noticed I had not slapped you yet on this beautiful day. I think we had to start earlier than usual." Came her blunt justification.

"I'm gonna get you for this, you..." Taunt already started to protest.

And while the couple continued their usual banter, Littlefoot sprinted towards the two homecomers. He wanted to know what's going on, right now.

"Did something happen to you, Specter? We all have noticed your scents, and..."

"I'm fine, Seeker. I really am. I had a pretty bad sleep story, that's all. I woke up early, so I wanted to take a look around and just... forgot about the time. And as luck would have it, Ponder stumbled across me in her Thinking Place. Sorry if I had you all worried..."

Littlefoot took a short look at Ruby, who just gave him a happy nod.

"I have already interrogated poor Specter enough. He won't do it again. Isn't that right?"

She took Cera as an example and used her tail to smack the massive fastbiter next to her in his flank. To Specter, however, it felt more like a light nudge, but it still made him aware of himself again.

"Hm? Oh! Yeah, right. I'll let you know the next time I wander around a bit, I promise."

To say he was nervous would have been a massive understatement. He had to admit, he had gotten quite intimate with Ruby during the last hour. Sure, the situations had been harsh for both of them, and in his mind he never crossed 'the line' of course. He had kept his distance to her for the most part, but he was of course not the one who would get to set that 'distance', draw that 'line'. That was something Littlefoot would do. And Specter didn't intend to find out what happened to those who crossed such lines in this time. Not when it involved a pack leader's mate, and especially not when he wasn't even interested in any of the females here.

"Well, I'm glad that's sorted out then." Littlefoot finally responded in relief. "Because you will need to be in your best shape for today, Specter. Your body and mind."

"Have you planned another hunt for me?" Specter asked in surprise. He thought his first hunt had shown that he was more than capable of staying alive. At least when he was forced to, it seemed like. "And what would I need my mind for? Besides the obvious things, of course."

"Well, you did quite the outstanding job sneaking away this morning without alerting any of us. Given your size... I'm impressed."

"Oh, that... Well, thanks, I guess. But why do I need another test then?"

Littlefoot had to chuckle lightly, already looking over at Taunt with a grin on his face.

"It's not a test. I have a little bet running with Taunt. He claims you're too fat to silently sneak up on a swimmer and kill it. But I say otherwise. The winner gets your kill. What will be left after you're done with it, of course."

Specter glared at Taunt for a few seconds before switching his attention back to Littlefoot.

"Is that so? Well, I guess Mr. Skinny Stripe-Ass will have to find his own meal today then."

Taunt's loud "Hey!" was easily drowned out by the pack's massive laughter, even though the remaining fastbiters were all scattered around them and not in immediate talking distance.

"Glad to hear that." Littlefoot responded with an honest smile, looking back at Specter. "And about your mind... I have planned for your first lessons in leaf-eater to be today, as well. You feel up to it?"

 _Finally!_ Specter thought to himself, very much looking forward to learning a new language again. He would soon be prepared a little bit better.

"Of course!" He happily exclaimed. "But I have to ask. Why now? I could've waited a bit longer if..." He cut himself off at that point, as he just wanted to hear the obvious answer. To him of course, this was truly relieving. He didn't actually want to wait any longer before learning what he assumed to be the only other language in this time.

"Isn't it obvious? It will help you massively on your hunts! Knowing what your targets are saying to each other, maybe picking up information about herds and everything... Knowledge means power."

 _And your downfall..._ Specter finished in his mind. But he didn't want to stain the good mood with his overly negative thoughts, so he just played along.

"Yeah, makes sense. Although I have to admit, when I first asked you if you could teach me the language... I had another thing in mind."

"Oh? What is it?" Littlefoot asked curiously, but also with quite some concern as he feared that Specter would start talking about his desire to meet the rainbowfaces again. To him, this was pretty much out of the question. He really would have liked to help him, but it was just too much to ask for at this point.

Specter's actual response should be a lot different, though. A lot.

"I want to hear the last words of my targets... before I kill them."

The fastbiters around Specter, and the whole pack close by in fact, were seriously taken aback by this. Especially for Ducky and Ruby, this came as quite a shock. They already knew about Specter's brutal honesty, but this was another topic. For most of the time, he had been acting gentle and empathetic. And that latest statement of his had been anything but.

Knowing that he had their unshared attention now, Specter quickly elaborated.

"Not what you're thinking, of course! I certainly take no joy in hearing my prey's pleadings. But... I used to know three different languages as a human. Humans speak so many languages, they often can't understand one another, which means that there are many misunderstandings between them. Not understanding can lead to anger... and hate... This has always pained me. I know I'm a killer now, but if I take some poor children's mother away from them, I want them at least to know why I killed her. Humans are not used to regularly killing other creatures that can speak, you know? Well... unless the humans start killing each other, but that is something different. They don't eat each other at least."

"Did somebody ever tell you that you're one scary weirdo?" Came Taunt's overwhelmed, yet nonetheless snarky remark.

"Did somebody ever tell you that you're one massive asshole?" Came Specter's prompt retort.

Taunt, however, decided not to give Specter an opening, for he was obviously aware of his own antics and liked it this way.

"Why yes, just ask Stern Claw."

But Specter had waited for exactly that.

"Then I guess we do have something in common, after all."

The two of them could only begin to smirk at each other, while the rest of the assembled fastbiters rolled their eyes. The absolute last thing they needed was another Taunt, this was pretty much everyone's thought at the moment, but even though Specter certainly shared some of Taunt's antics in some ways, he was far more dry and subtle with his remarks.

Specter spoke directly to Littlefoot next.

"And besides... I still feel bad about the longneck and threehorn I killed... If only I could've understood what they were saying, maybe there would've been another way..."

Littlefoot, however, seriously doubted that.

"You did what you had to do, Specter. I don't think talking to them would have helped in that situation."

He had these conversations far too often to feel sympathetic for the victims in them. The threehorn had made his death wish the moment he attacked, and he wanted to press another, far more important point.

"Also, feeling bad for killing your food will only prevent you from being the sharptooth you are now. I know first claw how hard it is, but it's just not good for you to constantly feel regret."

Specter, on the other hand, still tried to find the right words.

"I know... And I don't feel bad for any of them, nor do I have any regrets about it. I can't really explain it... It's just that... killing is something very... personal to me. Even when I'm supposed to be doing it for food. It just feels wrong to me, not caring about my victims."

"You could have just said that!" Littlefoot answered in relief once more. "We're all thinking about it the same way, more or less."

"I see. Good... I guess... all this is still just a bit too new for me... But I'm ready for today, trust me on this!" Specter concluded happily with a smile on his face.

* * *

 **Several hours later, just before sunset:**

Specter let out a loud sigh of exhaustion.

"Really, Seeker? This is the language you and your friends have been speaking for so long? And survived using it for so long?"

"And killed several sharpteeth because they didn't know how to speak it. Now stop complaining and speak after me." Littlefoot then switched over to leaf-eater. **"Speaking the language of the leaf-eaters will greatly help me in my hunts."**

 **"Talking... voice... leaf... big in... chase... help me will."  
**

Although Specter's sentence sounded terrible to anyone who truly understood the leaf-eater language, Littlefoot was very pleased with him.

"I'm impressed. You're making amazing progress! It took all of us whole seasons to fully speak that language again."

"Oh don't give that to me! That was shit and you know it..." Specter said with lot of annoyance in his voice.

Littlefoot was surprised by his harsh self-criticism.

"Did you expect to learn and understand an entire language in one single day? Gee, Specter, I've already told you that you're making incredible progress. You really are."

Specter sighed again, although this time out of self-composure.

"No, of course not. It's just that... leaf-eater sounds like it was made for complete, utterly retarded idiots."

Littlefoot wanted to object, but he knew that Specter was right. Compared to the sharptooth language, leaf-eater really sounded like only idiots or hatchlings would ever speak it. It was only fitting that pretty much every sharptooth considered leaf-eaters outright stupid.

"You would not believe how much trouble Taunt had with it. It took him longer than any of us to speak it." He then retorted, trying to make the topic a bit more relaxed again.

Which worked out, as Specter had to laugh loudly at this.

"Oh, I think I would."

Littlefoot joined him with a laugh of his own. After both of them had calmed down again, Specter took a contemplative look at the darkening, cloudy sky.

"I guess, it's almost time..."

"It is indeed. We will just have to wait for Spotter to return. He should be here any... Ah! There he his."

Both fastbiters jumped up as the flyer landed before them.

"So, how's the situation?" Specter asked.

Petrie's happy response came immediately. He was looking forward to this as well.

"Everything set for you! Whole bunch of swimmers nearby. Me see at least thirty of them, adults and younglings. But not everyone together. Plenty to choose from, Specter!"

Littlefoot had to smile at this. Although he admittedly sometimes felt a tiny little bit badly about it, considering he has been friends with Ducky for almost his entire life, he could not deny the fact that swimmers were just the perfect source of food. Their meat tasted good and they were rather easy to kill, since they didn't have any real ways of defending themselves other than their impressive speed. Even better, a single swimmer family often consisted of at least five or more children, which meant an endless supply of food, basically.

And Specter knew about the behavior of what he knew as Hadrosaurs as well.

"Guess I'm doing the population control for tonight then, huh?" He thought aloud, but after noticing the asking looks of Littlefoot and Petrie, he extended his sentence. "That... means I'm going to... 'reduce' their numbers a little bit."

The other two nodded at this, and Littlefoot spoke up again.

"To help me win the bet you only need to kill one. But please, be my guest in supplying food for the next days as well if you want to."

"Pfft! You wish! Besides, I'm only doing this to teach Taunt a lesson."

Littlefoot's smile widened as he thought about Specter's words.

 _Seems like his pride grew along with his body... Let's see how special you really are...  
_

"I'm sure you are. Alright, we should head out now. I'll tell the others to watch the show." He then concluded.

* * *

The whole pack was assembled behind the many bushes that covered the area. Only Chomper had to stay behind. The massive two-footer knew himself that he would've alerted the swimmers of the pack's presence before they could even see them. Instead, he resorted to waiting some distance farther away, using his beyond excellent sense of smell to observe.

All eyes were watching the black fastbiter now, as he silently closed the distance between himself and his prey.

"He will never make it. He may be silent when he sneaks, but he will have to sprint up to them. It's open ground for a whole longneck-length. They will notice him before he reaches them. You know the bet, Seeker. I will eat well tonight!"

"His target is not allowed to notice him, he has to kill the swimmer before she sees him coming. Yes, Taunt, I know our bet. But I'm sure Specter will come up with something."

"We will see..." Taunt just snorted.

Specter had not been able to hear their conversation anymore, but he knew the difficulty of this task all too well. It sounded simple enough, but one false move could ruin it all. And when that happened, he would not only have to chase after his meal, which was a challenge of its own as he still couldn't sprint with all his speed yet, but also share it with Taunt and admit to him that he was 'too fat'. No, this was not an option to him. He would show everyone, including himself, what he was made of.

He moved behind the last possible bush to grant him enough cover to hide his massive body, laid down on his haunches and started observing the swimmer family. He checked their scents first.

 _Alright, what do we have here? Six Hadrosaurs, swimmers. Parasaurolophs. The big one is the only adult, but... these are not her children. The scents differ too much... Hmm... Let's see if I can make use of this 'language'..._

He leaned a bit forward and started listening in on the swimmers. His very basic understanding of leaf-eater would be enough for this, he deduced.

 **"Not ... far ... children! Mother ... look you ... after good. And ... not ... mistake. All know ... happen ... children mine. Not ... happen ... you!"**

 _So, I guess she lost her own children to other predators... That means she will probably jump at the slightest noise. That doesn't make it easier... But, that's also her weakness. Must be... How could I capitalize on this now?  
_

Specter looked up at the dark, cloudy sky again. The hot climate gave him an idea.

 _Hmm... Yes, that could actually work. Maybe if I wait a bit more... and have a shitload of luck... Let's hope they will think themselves safe for a while longer._

He could see that the little swimmers were still having fun in the strip of water ahead, with their guardian closely nearby. Specter was growing impatient, but forced himself to stay on the ground. Although the adult swimmer had her back turned to him, he knew he would have to wait this out. He went over his plan a few times in his head.

 _Alright, but I'll have to time this perfectly. Not a moment's hesitation. Otherwise, these little shits will alert her the second they spot me._

* * *

"Daddy, what is he waiting for? Why doesn't he just go in and kill her?"

"Patience, Swipe. The swimmer must not notice him. He has to kill her in complete silence."

Swipe took a good look at the huge form of Specter again, even in his sitting posture easily as tall as some kinds of other, moderately big fastbiters.

"But... that's impossible!"

Littlefoot could only smile at his daughter. He was sure about some of Specter's abilities, he especially wanted to see how much he changed from last day, but this task probably was too much to ask for. It seemed like he was forced to find his own meal tonight, after all.

* * *

 _Come on you stupid sky! Don't let me down here! Just give me one little boom!  
_

Specter was growing increasingly more impatient, borderline nervous. Every single second now, the adult swimmer could decide to head back to the others. And as soon as that happened, Specter would've blown his chances.

As if the sky had waited for his command, a flash of light illuminated everything on the ground for a split second...

 **Boom!**

...and then, only four seconds later, a massive bang emerged from above.

 _Hah! Yes! I knew it!_

A predatory smile formed on his face. It would not be long now. He listened in on the swimmers again.

 **"Aunt Wary! What that?"  
**

 **"It ... children ... Sky Boom. We ... home."**

Specter made up his mind. It was a matter of seconds now, so he quickly grabbed a rather large stone with his right forelimb and prepared himself. Once more, a flash of light came from the sky.

 _Ok... this should do perfectly. Three... two... one... Now!_

He leaned back and threw the stone in the direction of the swimmer children, a loud splash and several shocked gasps followed as the stone hit the water right among them. The children had all turned to the source of the splash, and the adult was distracted as well. None of them would not see him coming now.

Specter instinctively lowered his forelimbs in preparation of the upcoming dash, jumped out of the bush and began his 'sprint'. It was way faster than any speed he could've ever ran in his past life, but more like lumbering in his new life. Still, that didn't really matter at this point, because then the booming thunder echoed with all its might from the sky again. He was only meters away from the adult swimmer now. He prepared his forward jump, not having planned much else.

The swimmer did not know what hit her. She actually matched Specter in size, so he had unknowingly decided to do this the brutal way. It should not all too soon become apparent to him, however, that he should have maybe allocated his time more towards the actual act of killing his prey.

 **Slice!  
**

But this would not be now. Now, Specter didn't jump onto her back but rather slightly to her left flank. The horrible sound of ripping flesh followed as exploited his momentum to tear through her whole side, using the razor-sharp claws on his right forelimb.

 **Chomp! Crunch! Crack!**

But the sudden outburst of pain apparently never reached her brain, as Specter finished his attack with a fierce bite into her neck, ripping his own head sideways, with that move probably ripping the leaf-eater's windpipe, crushing the bones and destroying the nerve cords inside. Although his bite was nowhere near as powerful as that of a Tyrannosaurus, it was more than enough in this situation, he found. He was huge for a raptor, after all. How would his bite not be good enough to kill same-sized prey?

The swimmer was surely dead in an instant.

Only now, after those few seconds, all of the little swimmers turned around to the sight of the blood-smeared fastbiter and their dead aunt in front of it. And the huge fastbiter was only looking at them now.

Specter had chosen to attack the adult's left side, which she was now lying on, not entirely without reason. This, he had actually planned. He wanted to spare the children the ghastly sight of their aunt's innards and ripped flesh. But the dead, adult swimmer before his feet didn't interest him just yet.

He eyed the little swimmers for a few seconds. Their combined scents of fear and horror almost made his head ache, but also hungry at the same time. However, they were not his targets. He would never kill a child, unless he would be absolutely forced to do so.

The little swimmers were petrified. They had never seen a sharptooth like this before. It was a fastbiter, but not one like any they had ever seen or heard of. It had killed their aunt in a matter of seconds, so they never even mounted an attempt to run away. They already knew they were dead.

 _No, I won't sink this low. Maybe it's time to use leaf-eater for another reason now._ Specter thought to himself.

He stepped over the corpse of the adult swimmer and closed the distance between himself and the children until he stood almost right in front of them. They were shaking with fear and were embracing one another, but none of them attempted to leave their siblings behind.

And so Specter bowed his head down and spoke with a calm voice, although he had to concentrate to the maximum to find the correct words.

 **"I... not kill you. Go... parents. Aunt... protect you. Tell... you mother... I'm sorry."**

The children all looked at the black fastbiter in even more shock. Did he just speak in leaf-eater? And how did he know this was their aunt? They had all understood his few words perfectly, although he sounded like he had just 'learned' their language. But still, none of them moved a muscle.

Specter sighed slightly. The following, he didn't really want to do, but he also didn't exactly want to explain this to the pack. So instead, he bowed his head down once more and let out a terrifying screech right in front of their faces. That made the little swimmers jump, and moments later they all ran away as quickly as their small feet could carry them. He could still hear their mournful cries for another minute. After that, there was silence again.

* * *

"I guess someone has to find his own meal tonight after all, eh?" Specter boisterously spoke as the whole pack approached him from out of their hiding spots, one foot placed on his fresh kill and having to hold back a wide smile when he saw Taunt's face.

"You were lucky, that's all!" Taunt instantly retorted. "No way you could have done that without the Sky Boom and Fire!"

"Sure, keep telling yourself that. And who knows? If you behave for tonight and take back what you said, then maybe, just maybe, I'll let you have a few bites."

"Why you rotten...!" Taunt already snarled in anger, but then slapped himself across the face. His mouth was already watering heavily at the smell of the swimmer's flesh. He pulled himself together for once before speaking again. "Ok! Ok! Fine! You're not fat and way better at hunting than me. It was just a joke! There! Are you satisfied now?"

Specter was beaming at this point, all fastbiters but Taunt now assembled around the swimmer, everyone enjoying this little battle of growls between the orange and black fastbiters.

"The first part would've been enough for me... But, if you insist..."

Taunt's grumbling was finally interrupted by Littlefoot.

"Come over here already! There is enough for everyone. Unless you want Path to have your share? He might be here any moment."

He didn't need to say that twice. Taunt quickly joined the others around the swimmer's corpse.

A bloody feast should follow, though Specter didn't feel all too uncomfortable this time. Even so, he finished his meal way before anyone else did. He wanted the little fuzzballs to have a bit of his part as well. Besides, he wasn't even really hungry anymore. His hunger had been pushed aside by the thoughts about his future. He knew how to speak the most basic form of leaf-eater now. It would probably only take him a few weeks or so to speak the language at least halfway fluently, he deduced.

He would make his decision soon.

* * *

 **And with that, I would like to conclude chapter four.**

 **Almost counting 9,000 words, this will probably be one of the longest chapters you will see in this story. The reason for its length is that I wanted to bring in as much detail as possible, especially in describing the dream at the start and the conversation between Specter and Ruby. I just hope I've succeeded :)**

 **Please let me know your honest opinions on this, and as always, take care and have a nice day.**

 **P.S.: Chapter five will probably take me around the same time to write, or maybe a little bit less. I would like to set the standard in terms of words at around the 6,000 to 7,000 mark, and this means probably one chapter each week if everything goes smooth. ;)**

 _ **Revised**_


	6. Chapter 5: The Loner

**Chapter 5: The Loner**

 ** _"Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better." - Henry Rollins_**

 **Three weeks later:**

 **Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.**

Specter eyed his spear for a few seconds with a grim expression before he continued his carving.

 **Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.**

Once again, he raised the weapon into the moonlight to examine it with deadly precision. A smile started forming on his face.

"Aight! This will do nicely." He stated, still scanning his crafted weapon from top to bottom and back again while spinning it around a few times in his claws. He couldn't help but admire his decent craftsmanship. After all, he had just created a weapon that was completely novel. It was still a spear, but he had improved it by a lot. And for good reason.

The spears his pack were accustomed to were too small for him to use effectively, he always noticed. Sure, they were easy to carry and easy to wield, but at the same time his aim and throwing power suffered immensely from the short length and low weight of these sticks. They were good enough for basic hunting, as he had already found out on his very first hunt, but Specter just never felt comfortable using them. To him, it felt like as if he was throwing toothpicks at his prey.

However, what he was holding in his claws now was more than fitting for a sharptooth such as himself, he deduced. He had spent at least an hour just searching for the right kind of wood to craft his spear from, and, after he was finished with that, he had still spent another two hours of carving it to perfection. The result was a deadly weapon, unlike any other in this time. Even though a professional carver would have probably broke out into laughter at how the spear looked, no dinosaur struck by it ever would, Specter figured.

Most easily noticeable was the enormous size for this kind of weapon, but that was of course not all. Specter had carved a rifling into most of the stick's body and added small barbs at its sharp tip, along with tiny little scratches in the middle part that would ensure a firm grip. This would not only make it easier for him to handle and throw the weapon, but also would make it way more deadly. The rifling would add some spin to the spear in its flight and when it hit its target, it would dig deep into its flesh. The barbs would make sure that trying to remove the spear would cause his target even more pain and suffering.

In any other context Specter would have turned on his own words, not showing his pack too much about what he knew, with that brutal weapon. But he did not intend on showing them. This was his personal weapon for his personal path. They would have nothing to do with it and he was happy about that. They would not suspect a thing for now.

He had already told everyone about his desire to do something before going to sleep. A little ritual that would help him clear his mind in preparation for a peaceful slumber. As a human, this had always been his last or sometimes only cigarette of the day, ironically the very reason why he even came to this place. Without that ritual, he probably wouldn't have even seen the blue glowing stone coming down from the sky. Of course the pack had never really understood what 'smoking' was, why someone would burn a dried plant to inhale the fumes, but what they had understood was the basic concept of this little ritual. So they quickly got accustomed to Specter staying away from them for a few hours sometimes before going to sleep himself.

They all trusted him with their lives by now, he felt, and so did he. In the last three weeks he had spent as much time as possible with each and every single one of them. He had always listened with great excitement and care to their stories and songs, trying to grasp as many details as possible from them. It had been such an amazing experience hearing about their past lives, their lives under different names in this 'Great Valley', how those ordinary children became the stuff of legends, and how he was actually a bit like them, despite the difference in time. Specter, just like the legendary Seven Hunters, had his life twisted around and basically destroyed. The major difference between them was that the Seven's sacrifice had at least led to a good ending. A reasonable ending. The death of a disgusting tyrant called Red Claw and his even more disgusting underling called Calin. The Seven Hunters were heroes, legends, saviors.

But his own ending would not turn out to be that, Specter could already expect that by now. He was nothing but a harbinger of apocalypse.

Still, it was in those last weeks that he truly felt excitement and joy, each day learning something new. All this while practicing his leaf-eater every single day for multiple hours. He even started thinking in this 'language' from time to time. After one particular hunt even, he had followed the survivors back to their herd, just so he could listen to their talking and maybe learn some new words.

It still felt like a dream to him. Those were dinosaurs he has befriended, after all, and they had established a society, rules and regulations. Of course, those were a lot blunter and less refined than what he was used to, but that didn't change the fact that they had them. The pack was obviously very happy about his open, friendly and caring character, but they never fully saw the big picture. The true reason why Specter was so eager on hearing all of their stories and learning the leaf-eater language.

 _I guess they will understand soon enough..._ He thought to himself, letting out a sad sigh, still twisting and spinning the spear in his claws.

He has always been a loner. Never did that change with his transformation into a raptor, even though he technically now was dependent on his pack. He had to do things together with them. Nature demanded it. And he had to admit, he actually liked being around them very much. This has always been sort of a dream for him, him and his friends fighting against the hardships of nature and earning their presence on this planet. Only that those raptors were not his original friends. And he was no human anymore.

Despite all this, however, he needed his solitude. Sometimes, he just needed to be alone, to clear his mind and contemplate.

Ruby was the closest he could compare himself to. She, too, sometimes sought solitude in her Thinking Place. She, too, needed that to think and contemplate. But even Ruby was entirely different from him. Ruby had a mate and children, she was bonded. Specter wasn't.

This made him remember the events over the last three weeks. With a heavy heart, he remembered one particular conversation with Littlefoot.

* * *

 **Five days earlier:**

It had been another successful hunt for the predators.

The young longneck had wandered away from her herd against the bidding of her parents to explore the environment. Her final mistake, as it would later become apparent to her.

She had walked right into the pack's trap, and Breeze and Leap injured her severely with a combined attack. Chomper had been on a hunt of his own, so the pack asked Specter if he could take over his part. The part of killing the prey.

He had accepted, of course, also as sort of a final test of his capabilities. And so he had struck the gravely injured longneck down with ease. She had been begging for her life to him, this massive, black sharptooth, not knowing if he could understand her words. Littlefoot, however, knew that he could to the most extent, and feared that it would cause Specter to eventually give in and spare her life, at least for another moment.

But he hadn't. After listening patiently for her to finish, Specter had replied to her pleadings with a firm **"No."** in leaf-eater, right before he slashed her throat with two accurate strikes of his sickle claws. She was dead in a matter of seconds.

Littlefoot was pleased to see him like this. It seemed like Specter had truly accepted his way by now. Still, he wanted to have a serious talk with him. There were still a lot of things he would have liked to know, especially about Specter's former family. So, in the midst of the pack's feast, he took him aside and prepared himself mentally for a talk from father to father.

"You know, I have never asked you about your age. How old were you before your change? I mean, the stone has made all of us a bit older, but we were still very young."

Littlefoot wanted to do this the careful way. Specter has always acted very mature and calculating, but that could have been a side effect of his change. For all he knew, Specter could have still been a youngling in his former life.

"Well, I don't think it made me older. I was 21 years... cold times... whatever... old as a human. You are considered a grown-up when you turn 18 years old in most parts of the place where I'm from, so I definitely was an adult before as well."

"Interesting. So your parents must have been still young as well. What about your brothers and sisters?"

Specter looked at Littlefoot in surprise at first but soon realized that everything related to family went way different in this time.

"My parents were actually kinda old. My mother was 30 years and my father around 50 years old the day I was born. And... I never had any brothers or sisters."

"Oh... I'm... sorry to hear that. If you allow the question... Was it an accident or... did someone kill them?"

Specter had to laugh at this which made Littlefoot look somewhat uncomfortable in return.

"No, they didn't die. I was born alone."

"Your mother laid only one single egg? I find that highly..."

Now Specter truly had an outburst of suppressed laughter as he imagined the sight of a human emerging from an egg. He had to calm down first before he could speak any further.

"Seeker, humans don't hatch out of eggs. They are... coming out of their mothers... alive... in a way."

"They what?!" Littlefoot's exclaimed, his face taking on a disgusted look.

"Didn't I tell you? Oh, doesn't matter. You see, humans are what you call 'mammals'. Just like ground fuzzies, for example. Their children are born alive of their mothers. I know, I find it a bit disgusting as well." Specter replied with a smile on his face. He took joy in Littlefoot's feelings, so he decided to go a bit further even. "However, I was a bit different. See, humans grow inside their mothers' bellies until they are born. But there are some, and that includes myself, that grow pretty big and can't be born normally. There was a time in our history when that meant the mother's death, together with her child sometimes, but we found a way to prevent that. So basically, the, uhm, 'healers' had to cut my mother open, got me out of her belly, and then closed the cut. That's how I was born."

Littlefoot looked at him with wide eyes. He needed a bit of time to recompose himself, as he found the detail in that practice beyond disgusting. That soon turned into concern, however.

"And what about your children? I mean, you are pretty big now, so... did they have to cut your mate open so she could give birth to them as well?"

Now it was Specter's turn to look at Littlefoot in surprise, although he was quick to elaborate.

"I never had children. Or a mate."

"You didn't? But you said you were older than any of us is right now. Did something happen to you during your Time of Mating?"

Specter had to laugh once again. It was almost surreal how different things like finding a mate were between two species.

"That's not how it works, Seeker. There is no 'Time of Mating' with humans. And you normally don't have children when you're only 21 years old. In my case, that's something I might've started thinking about when I'd been around 30 years old. Or probably not at all."

"Gee, that sounds... difficult. But didn't your instincts tell you that it's time to find a mate at some point?"

A coy smile appeared on Specter's face.

"Well... kinda... But most humans do... you know, the 'stuff that makes babies'... for fun. And a lot of them leave their 'mate' after that. There are... uhm... ways to prevent females from having children for that time." He quickly noticed Littlefoot's ever so surprised expression before extending his sentence. "Now, don't you make any plans on what to do with Ponder tonight. That stuff only, and I mean only, works for humans. I'll tell you a few more details about it another time, if you're so interested."

Specter's now beaming smile was retorted by Littlefoot's embarrassed look and two shakes of his head.

"Good. I'm sure you're already having your hands full with Biter and Swipe. Speaking of which... I would like to get back now before they eat the rest of my share as well, if you don't mind."

* * *

 **The present:**

Specter had to sigh heavily at these memories. He had always disliked children as a human, to the point where he swore never to have any of his own. To him, children were loud, annoying and stupid. And he would have to bear all this for numerous years. However, the pack had become his new family now. His new life. And being around the children here made him feel completely different about that topic. They had all been so curious about his past and he had spent what seemed to be days just telling them about what his past life had been like. He had come to the point where he actually wished he maybe had one or two of these little fuzzballs to look after, himself.

However, he was quick to dismiss these thoughts and memories. He had already made his decision. There was no going back now.

He would travel to the Great Valley, find those rainbowfaces and ask them how to get back to his time. And if that wouldn't be possible, he would either kill himself or wander as far away as possible before starting a new life in solitude, or at least ask them about what his presence here meant. He owed the pack too much already, and he was already coming to a point where leaving them felt like his heart was breaking apart. But he could not give in now. He would not place his feelings over the fate of mankind. Seven billion humans were supposed to live in his time. He would not take their existence away by teaching the dinosaurs how to survive the extinction event.

And even if he wouldn't teach them anything, there was the chaos theory. The so called 'butterfly effect'. 60 million years were such a gigantic time span that every single one of Specter's breaths could have potentially killed another species in the future. And it worked the other way around, too, which was why he was so heavily against showing them what he knew, or at least heard of. In this case, he himself was a huge butterfly now, with wings that caused tornados with every beat.

That made him remember the dream he had three weeks ago. In his mind he could see himself again, the massive black raptor with his own parents' blood on his claws. The sky on fire, the ashes blowing away in the wind... It was only now that he fully understood these implications as he pushed the memories of the female voice in his dream aside. His presence most likely meant the extinction of mankind. His dream had been a testament to that, he now thought to himself.

But surely, there was still something he could do to prevent all this, at least verify a few things. He simply had to choose the harder right over the easier wrong, he decided.

 _No! I will not let that happen! I will not sacrifice seven billion humans for a few million dinosaurs! I'm sorry Seeker... Ponder... Haven... Taunt... Stern Claw... and all you others. But I can't place your kind above my own. Not above seven billion lives! And if it's already too late... At least I want to know why I'm even here...  
_

Hesitantly, he stood up and grabbed one of the vines he had already prepared. He quickly wrapped the green plant tightly around his body and placed his spear into its hold. He was all set now. This was it. His time to leave the pack that took him in and cared for him. He noticed he was on the verge of tears.

 _I... should at least let them somehow know... I can't let them think I've abandoned them for no reason!_

He thought about his time with the pack again before marking the area around him with his urine. After he was finished, he analyzed his own markings. He could smell his own sadness and desperation. But there was no fear in that scent.

It was a message. A message, saying that he just had to make this decision.

 _Ok... I guess... that should do. Goodbye everyone. Thank you for everything. There is no way I could ever repay you all... But I have to do this. It's my destiny._

With that, he went off towards his first destination. There, he would ask a certain fastrunner family for guidance to find the Great Valley.

 _Hanging Rock. Detras... Pearl... Arial... Orchid... I'm coming for you. I hope you're prepared for this...  
_

* * *

 **Several hours later:  
**

Specter has been moving nonstop for almost the whole trip, only resting for a few minutes whenever he felt thirsty or needed a quick break. He wanted to reach Hanging Rock by sunrise at the latest.

He had calculated it all through. The pack would probably sleep in, which would give him some more time. Eventually, however, at some point in the next morning, they would find out that he was missing and go look for him. It would then probably take them another hour or so to find his markings. He already expected Ruby or Littlefoot to make their conclusions in a very short amount of time, and after that, they would send Petrie to find him. And since a flyer could cover a lot of area in a very short amount of time, and since Specter's destination should have been clear to the pack by then, Petrie would probably find him around noon. And Specter knew what that meant. Trouble. And he didn't like trouble, especially not in this case.

And there was another problem. Although he had listened to their stories with utmost care, he had naturally never asked them for the way to Hanging Rock or the Great Valley. So he didn't actually know the exact paths to both places. He only relied on his sharp thinking, few unwilling hints from the songs and awareness of landmarks such as Saurus Rock, wherever they were.

He slowed down his pace. It was still nighttime and he stood before a fork. Two ways were going in entirely different directions.

 _Shit! This is exactly why they need maps in this time!_ He sarcastically thought to himself.

Looking at the sky, he decided he would have enough time to rest a bit and wait for the sun to rise after all. He would most certainly find the correct path with some light, he deduced. It was better than getting lost over a rushed timeframe.

So he walked up to a tall rock formation and curled up beneath it. Only now he started to feel the signs of exhaustion. His legs were burning like fire, every single muscle in his body seemed to ache.

 _Hmm... Maybe I really should sleep a bit? I think I've covered enough ground already..._

With that, he closed his eyes as he let his body recover from the exertions.

* * *

"Argh! Those cursed ankle-biters! I hope your bodies will all rot away you pieces of spiketail shit!" The giant, brown two-footer was frantic. He took a short look at the massive gash on his flank before continuing his rage filled monologue. "You seriously thought you could betray me, isn't that right, Stalker?"

He spat on the ground upon mentioning this name.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but you don't just betray me! May the carrion flyers feast on your dirty flesh and that of your pack you rotten pile of scum! Nobody messes with Thrasher!"

Thrasher was limping slightly, but he figured his life wouldn't be in immediate danger anymore.

"Pah! It never was! You thought you could kill me?! You thought you could betray me like this?! Wrong!"

He was just about to further continue his speech when he suddenly picked up a scent. It made him stop in his tracks.

"What? Another fastbiter? Here? And he is alone?" A dirty chuckle from Thrasher followed. "Well, it looks like I have found myself another food-chaser. He better be not as stupid as you were, Stalker, or you will meet soon. Then you can both watch me as I piss on your corpses!"

* * *

Specter had big problems finding sleep, even though he had his eyes firmly shut and he was filled with enough exhaustion. But the thoughts inside his head just would not stop racing. So he decided not to sleep after all but rather just relax his muscles for a bit and then move on.

That was when he suddenly picked up a scent, a scent that was closing in on him.

 _Hm? What is...? Shit! A Tyrannosaurus?! Oh, crap, this keeps getting better and better!_

He didn't have any real time to think about what to do now as he could already hear the thunderous crashing of footsteps. And they were quickly getting louder. He jumped up and grabbed onto his spear, preparing himself for the worst case scenario.

 _Guess I will see soon enough if this will penetrate the scales of these things..._

After another few moments, the huge form of the brown two-footer whom the scent belonged to came into visual range as he emerged from the left path, and soon stood almost right before Specter, only mere meters separating the two. Both sharpteeth eyed each other with utmost precision. Specter had learned a lot from Chomper about how most two-footers viewed fastbiters, so he quickly decided to do this the smart way, if there even was the option to do so. After all, this predator in front of him could be just out for food and now try to eat him.

"Fastbiter, you're in luck. I have decided for you to be my new ally. You either accept... or die. And don't get any stupid ideas. That puny stick won't help against me." The two-footer spoke up with a dominant tone in his voice.

Specter understood the situation very well, but obviously didn't want to have anything to do with this sharptooth. However, how would he get out of this situation unharmed? He had let the Tyrannosaurus corner him, basically, so there was no real chance to run. And politely asking this guy to leave him alone would probably not exactly do the trick either. But maybe, Specter figured, he could make use of this 'thing' only he knew about.

And so what he did was grin slightly, though it was a forced, fake expression. It was a high-risk gamble, but apparently necessary. He would have another chance to try out his special trick on another sharptooth, and this time he could exaggerate like never before. Not to mention that it could very well save his life. It just had to.

 _No emotions last time... But this should be interesting. This guy talks big, thinks he's smart, but is just the casual airhead. If not for his species and size, he would be dead already... But I can't take him on like that... Just hope this works...  
_

"I am honored to meet you." Specter started while bowing his head deeply. "They call me Specter. May I ask for your name?"

"I am Thrasher, fastbiter, and I don't care about your name! I just want to know one thing... Will you join me to find food for me? Or will you become my food yourself?"

Specter didn't grin anymore, disgusted with this big idiot before him. And yet, he found that this was getting more interesting by the second. That thought immediately vanished, however, as he prepared himself for the following sentence, letting his vast imagination do the work. He was disgusted with himself for this scenery he forced into his mind, yet couldn't find a way around.

"I'm deeply sorry, sir. Of course I will join you. And you know, I am indeed lucky. I just killed Seeker and several of his pack, and now I'm looking for a strong ally. I take it that you have heard of them?"

"You... killed Seeker?! The fastbiter who killed Red Claw?" Thrasher instantly sputtered at Specter's words.

"The one and only. He's not even that scary. Took me two attacks to rip his puny heart out. A shame that his children didn't seem to enjoy that display. What a pity. They would have made excellent subordinates... Well, they had to join their father at some point, I guess."

"Don't you dare lie to me, fastbiter! How big of a fool do you think I am?! _Nobody_ can kill Seeker like that! Not alone, not even you."

"Oh? A strong two-footer such as yourself defending an ankle-biter?"

Thrasher let out an immensely angry growl, but he didn't want to take any unnecessary risks with this fastbiter. Specter's size didn't elude him, of course, even though he was still a lot bigger than this featherhead. However, if it was actually true what he was saying, this fastbiter would be extremely dangerous. So Thrasher started checking Specter's scents, and his eyes went wide.

"So it's... it's true! Huh, nice job, fastbiter. But now I want to know... how and why did you kill him?"

Specter tried to fake a vicious laugh, which almost came out as a series of puny squawks in the end. So he quickly turned that laugh into a deep chuckle, but it was an honest one. That chuckle was at Thrasher's expense, after all.

"Why? Well, because he is a fake. All this talk about him being 'invincible'. Spiketail shit! He is flesh and blood just like any other sharptooth. He bleeds just like everyone else does. Though I have to admit, it took me some time. I had to act like a fake myself. The fool let me into his pack and told me all his secrets. And guess what? Nothing. No 'Stone of Cold Fire' or nonsense like that. Nothing... Just another fastbiter upstart thinking that he can be a mighty sharptooth. So I said I didn't know how to hunt and he arranged one for me. Can you believe that? Can you actually believe that? Me, not knowing how to hunt?"

Thrasher seemed to be amused by this, his dirty laugh gave that away, which filled Specter with a strange mix of emotions. He was feeling good, enjoying himself as he made fun of this two-footer, yet also immensely scared beneath all this. Still, he wanted to go even further. Simply because the Tyrannosaurus in front of him probably knew his way around here.

"And he only brought his mate with him. He didn't even really ask how I managed to rip apart that threehorn. Such trust... And then, well... Then I just killed them both when they had their backs turned towards me. Heinous maybe, but effective."

Thrasher was rather impressed indeed. This fastbiter would surely be an excellent ally, at least until he overestimated himself eventually. But for now, he would not kill him.

"Hah! I like you, fastbiter. You understand that only the strong and smart can survive in this world."

"Indeed they do." Specter affirmed, still quite enjoying himself here. But now he would get to the point, the reason why he had decided to play this two-footer for a fool. "And to show you my gratitude, I know exactly where I could find you a nice, tasty meal!"

Now Thrasher really was all ears. He had not eaten in almost two days by now, given that his old food-chasers betrayed and injured him.

"Oh yeah? Well, out with it! I could use a meal and you look like you could use a bit of blood."

"Most certainly." Specter deadpanned. "So, do you know where Hanging Rock is?"

"Of course I do! So what? That place is always abandoned."

Specter jumped for joy inside, and he didn't even consider Ruby's parents not to be there. She had told him often enough how good fastrunners were at hiding and running. And someone like Thrasher, even with his sublime nose, obviously lacked the wit to find them.

"Oh no, I fear you're wrong." Specter said respectfully. "A whole fastrunner family lives there. You know how hard these are to catch. However, I happen to know their daughter. They don't know she sadly decided to... oppose me. For all they know, I'm a friend."

Thrasher had to chuckle again, an honest, cold chuckle which made Specter shiver inside. But he couldn't allow his masquerade to fall, no matter how bad he was feeling with telling all these disgusting lies. That would mean his certain death.

"Good, good... Let us head out then." The two-footer finally concluded and went ahead, taking the right pathway, Specter carefully following after him.

* * *

 _This fucking asshole is a monster! I have to get rid of him before we arrive at Hanging Rock. I don't want to end like his last 'allies', or have him anywhere around...  
_

Specter was fighting his own emotions even more than before. He could not let his fear or anger show, or Thrasher would kill him the moment he smelled it. But after everything that two-footer had told him about how he almost starved his allies to death in his greed, only to kill them when they wanted to leave, Specter's hate towards him was growing with every second. What disgusted him even more was the fact that Thrasher was so casual, so straightforward, about all that.

 _You think you're invincible yourself, huh? Piece of crap, I hope you die slowly and painfully...  
_

Specter moved the spear he was carrying a bit closer to his forelimbs, preparing himself for whatever once more. Attacking this two-footer would be suicide, but it slowly became clear to him that he might not have any other option. This was because they were walking through an extensive gorge right now, and the occasional cave was just way too small for Specter to fit into. Should this gorge end just before Hanging Rock, Specter knew he would have to come up with something innovate. But for what? There was no way for him to take on such a huge predator, not in his current state and lack of experience when it came to fighting sharpteeth.

Ultimately, he deduced, his spear would be his only option. Luckily for him at least, Thrasher had not even asked about his strange weapon once.

 _Shows how much of an idiot you are..._

It was just before sunrise when they finally arrived at the area close to the massive rock formation known as Hanging Rock. And the worst case indeed came into effect, as it was also only now that the gorge seemed to end. Just moments after realizing this, Specter had told Thrasher that he would be luring the fastrunners out so they could be killed with ease, in a hasty effort to convince the two-footer to stay back so that he could make a run for it. However, Thrasher was just too stubborn and did not let Specter make any suggestions to him.

"Alright, fastbiter... Here we are. Now, go get me these fastrunners out so I can finally have my meal. If you're fast, I might even let you have one for yourself."

Another vicious laugh emerged his maw, even colder than before. But Specter didn't laugh with him anymore. His face took on a dark expression as he quickly contemplated what was at stake for him, and silently edged away from the huge predator to gain at least a small safety margin.

"No." Specter spoke with utmost firmness, to which Thrasher's laugh died in an instant and he now slowly turned his head to stare at him. "I have bad news for you, 'two-footer'. I lied. I was a trusted member of Seeker's pack, and the stories are true. But because I didn't lie about my good mood, I'll give even someone like you a second chance. Leave and never return. You'd be best not to mess with me... So? What do you say?"

How much Specter wished that Thrasher would've shown some insight. Of course, however, the two-footer showed absolutely none.

"You... YOU! How _dare_ you?! I should have known to expect nothing less from a fastbiter piece of excrement! You shall _die_ for this! Nobody defies me!"

 **Roar!**

After his shattering roar of raw anger, Thrasher swung his tail around and started his charge at the black fastbiter. Specter had just enough time to give one last retort.

"Wrong answer."

He swiftly dodged Thrasher's lumbering attack and sprinted away to gain some more distance. Then he turned to face him, ripped his weapon out of its holster and raised the deadly spear.

"I will _end_ you!" Thrasher screamed, indifferent about the weapon, as he began another charge.

Specter showed no signs of emotions anymore, just leaning back as far as he could to give his spear as much power as possible.

 _No, not today..._

He let his thoughts fly along with the lethal weapon, spinning in flight and cutting the air apart. Wherever Thrasher would soon be hit by it, no matter if it would only injure or kill him, he was definitely done for. The two-footer was dead.

Or at least so he thought.

Only now it would become apparent to Specter that he had massively overestimated his weapon. He had forgotten about one, simple little detail before engaging the two-footer. And as Thrasher lowered his head and easily deflected the spear with his thickly protected skull, it was quite clear to Specter what that little detail was.

 _The top part of a Tyrannosaurus' head is heavily armored... A wooden spear would never penetrate his skull... Fuck!_

He dodged Thrasher's attack once again, but this time he was completely out of ideas. He had just signed his own death sentence with his gamble. It was easy enough for him to dodge the huge two-footer's mindless attacks for now, but he knew he would run out of stamina eventually. And Thrasher only needed to hit Specter once to break his hollow bones. The worst part was, Specter couldn't really run away either. Were he to just flee, he would never be able to find Ruby's parents with a two-footer chasing after him.

The situation started to look grimmer with every second. Specter's mind was on overdrive, thinking about a solution. But there was none. He was doomed.

 _So be it then..._

No, he would at least give that bastard a fight. He would not die in this place without at least ruining Thrasher's day. So he quickly sprinted towards his spear and picked it up while running, then starting to run circles around the two-footer as he was searching for any possible weak spot.

That was when he finally noticed the huge gash on Thrasher's left flank, the flank which he had hidden from him all the time. This was his target. It was his turn now to command the pace of the engagement. Not wasting any more time, Specter sprinted towards the two-footer.

And Thrasher was quite surprised to see the dastardly fastbiter suddenly charging at _him_ now. He prepared himself for a frontal crash. But Specter had other ideas.

The fastbiter went left, right, left, and then, just as he was about to make contact, right again. This caused Thrasher to miscalculate his counterattack, which enabled Specter to jump at his open side, hook his sickle claws deeply into his flesh and rip open the barely healed wound again by kicking downwards with both feet.

Thrasher screamed in pain, basically his whole left flank cut open now, but he wasn't finished just yet. But he couldn't reach the fastbiter on his flank with his teeth, he was too bulky and sluggish for that. Instead, he leaned his whole body over to Specter's side, seemingly falling right onto him. This made Specter jump away in surprise, but also opened him up for an attack. The smack from Thrasher's massive tail that followed hit him right in his side and almost knocked him out in one blow.

Specter was lying on the ground in pain, unable to move, still clinging the spear in his claws. He quickly swept his thorax with his free hand. No ribs were broken, it seemed. He was lucky, but still, he was done for. The two-footer would have no problems finishing him off now, despite his probably fatal injury. And as he came closer to him with staggering steps, Thrasher started laughing again, even though rivers of blood were emerging from the huge wound on his side.

Specter looked up at the sky.

 _So this is how it ends... I'm pathetic... Why couldn't I keep my damn mouth shut for once?! Well... At least you're dead as well now... You can't survive this one, you bastard...  
_

And just as he had almost made peace with his upcoming, gruesome death, Specter could've sworn seeing a shadow appear on the cliff behind Thrasher's massive body.

"Huh... I told you... Nobody defies me..." Thrasher spoke in his cold tone, which came across as rather horrifying since he even had blood coming out of his mouth by now. It was probably clear to him, too, that he would break down and die before midday, but even more so that he would take Specter with him. "But you... gave me a good fight, fastbiter... So... any last words... before... I kill you?"

Right at this moment, Thrasher's world fell to pieces. Specter, this fastbiter almost right before his feet he would be about to rip apart, was smiling.

"Look up."

Thrasher hesitated for only a single moment, not for longer than it took the drops of blood from his wound to hit the soil.

 **Crash!**

And that should prove to be his demise. A rock, about half the size of his own head, had hit Thrasher right on top of it. A disgusting sound followed, not from the rock but his skull as it seemed to have cracked. Yet, he was still standing. Yet.

Because that was the opening Specter had waited for. He jumped up to his feet, leaned back as far as he could and let the spear fly once more. He didn't make a mistake this time.

 **Shluck!**

The spear penetrated Thrasher's delicate throat, which he only showed because he basically towered above Specter, with ease. The gurgling sounds emerging from his maw sounded like music to Specter, a horrible, dreadful symphony that meant he would stay alive. And so he just jumped a step back and sat back down, and let the two-footer suffer a slow and painful death. After a minute, even the twitching of his body stopped and everything was silent. Thrasher had been defeated. The two-footer was dead.

Specter needed a few more moments to regain his composure, or what was left of it after all this. Then he stood up again and took a good look at the top of the cliff. The shadow he had seen before was still there, far more clearly visible. And it had colors.

It was a purple Oviraptor. Both raptors eyed each other for a bit before Specter took heart and yelled up at his savior.

"Thanks! But why did you help me?"

The answer came immediately.

 **"Because I only know one pack of fastbiters who use pointed sticks."**

 _He speaks my language... And he's an Oviraptor... Oviraptor... Fastrunner... I see... So this must be her brother..._ Specter quickly noted.

"It's good to see you too, Orchid!"

Although he couldn't see the fastrunner's expression from his position, Specter knew he had surprised him with that.

 **"Who... are you?"** Orchid then asked with some unsureness in his voice.

"I am Specter! We need to talk!"

* * *

 **"You did us quite the favor, Specter. Thrasher was almost as annoying as Red Claw in his time, though at least not as popular with you sharpteeth. Anyway, I'm glad you killed him."** Orchid spoke to Specter, who was walking by his side now. Under any normal circumstances, Orchid would have legitimately feared for his life, with such a massive fastbiter walking right next to him, but as it was now, he was quite certain with whom Specter was friends with.

"I wonder why he wouldn't be popular..." Specter grumbled angrily in response. He cleared his throat after this, not intending on somehow offending Orchid already, but the young Oviraptor had apparently not picked this up in the first place.

 **"But why were you with him? I thought you were just another one of his food-chasers. If I had not seen your pointed stick, I would have never helped you."**

"You're truly a good Samaritan, Orchid." Specter replied sarcastically.

 **"I am a what?"** Orchid didn't know the word but the tone in Specter's voice made the insult quite obvious.

"Nothing. Sorry, I'm still a little bit... pumped... Thank you, Orchid, I really mean it."

 **"I should hope so. You can also be glad that it was me on guard duty tonight. My father is too old to be pushing rocks around. So, why are you here? And why are you alone?"**

"I... would like to discuss that with your whole family."

Orchid eyed him for a few seconds, not distrustful but also not as if he was fine with Specter saying this.

 **"And how do I know I can trust you?"**

"You can't. You don't know me yet... But I can tell you some good news about your big sister. If you're interested, that is."

The fastrunner nodded in joy, his previous assumptions now confirmed.

 **"Sure! Still, my father will want to have a word with you once we get home. Just... let me do the talking."**

Specter sighed loudly. He could already anticipate how Ruby's father would react to him.

"Of course he will..."

* * *

Both raptors arrived quickly at the top of the rock formation that was Hanging Rock. As soon as they did so, three pairs of eyes became visible, sternly looking at Orchid. It was his father who spoke up, although he did it in leaf-eater so that Specter wouldn't be able to understand it.

"Orchid! Are you out of your mind?! Why did you bring a sharptooth to our home? You know how vile fastbiters are."

Orchid wanted to give his calm response but Specter took it on himself to speak to the elder fastrunner. Also, it would finally enable him to speak proper leaf-eater again and maybe learn a few new words.

 **"Vile? Ruby won't be pleased if I told her that her father speaks like this of her kind."**

The assembled fastrunners' beaks fell agape. Even Orchid was overwhelmed by that.

"You... can speak leaf-eater?!" Detras sputtered. The elder fastrunner couldn't believe it, but it was now that he noticed the blood-stained spear Specter was carrying in the vines which were wrapped around his body.

 **"Well, obviously. I belonged to Seeker's, or Littlefoot's, pack. Whatever you want to call him."**

"Why have we never heard of you then? What is your name?" It was the elder female, Pearl, who asked that question.

 **"You could say I'm quite new around here. The name's Specter. Pleased to meet you all."** Specter said and bowed his head respectfully.

"Wait. You said you 'belonged'..." Pearl started again, but Specter cut her off.

 **"Yes, I... left them. I didn't want them to have anything to do with this. There is too much at stake for me... Please... just give me a chance to explain all this to you."**

The fastrunner family looked at each other for a few moments, before Detras spoke up again.

"If you are friends with Ruby and her pack, then of course you are welcome here. Come inside, I fear this will take a while."

This took a load off Specter's mind. As the fastrunners all went inside, he looked at the rather small crevice that marked the entrance to their home, and shifted uneasily. In the end, though, he managed to squeeze his body through the rocks without losing too many feathers.

Now that he was inside, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the actual cave was much bigger than its entrance. He could understand now how Hanging Rock could have been a safe haven for the fastrunners for such a long time. No two-footer would ever fit inside, and even fastbiters, however smart and nimble they were, would have great trouble finding their way around in the several small caverns and tunnels, which were leading in all kinds of different directions.

The five raptors sat down, and Specter began retelling them a bit about his past and his journey to their home.

* * *

 **"Really? You just killed that disgusting sharptooth? We cannot thank you enough for this! Thrasher has been a thorn in our sides for quite a while now."** Detras spoke in sharptooth again. They had all agreed on speaking in Specter's native language as this would make it easier for him to find the right words.

"It was mostly Orchid, actually, who helped me in taking him down. Without him, I would have been dead by now." Specter replied humbly.

Detras eyed his son for a few seconds before switching his attention back to Specter.

 **"Is that so? Well, I suppose his disobedience had a good cause for once."** He looked at Specter's pointed stick for a few seconds before continuing. **"Would you let me take a look at that?"**

Specter handed him his massive weapon without hesitation, a weapon that was several times bigger than the elder Oviraptor himself.

"Sure, if it helps you in understanding where I come from..."

Detras took great care in inspecting the deadly stick, though he had great amounts of trouble lifting it. He was not even surprised to see it, but this certainly was not the work of the casual sharptooth. Not even for the standards of Littlefoot and his pack.

 **"Interesting..."** Detras responded after a while again, handing the spear back to Specter. **"You are also among the very few fastbiters I have seen having feathers. However, I still have one problem with your story..."**

"What would that be?" Specter asked in surprise, holstering his weapon again.

 **"It's simple, actually. You see, when we talked to the rainbowfaces during our time in the Great Valley, they made it very clear to me that the Stone of Cold Fire which changed our daughter and her friends would be the last of its kind."**

"Well... I guess... they have been wrong then."

Detras thought about this for a moment, but the evidence was quite clear. What other explanation was there for this black fastbiter's sudden existence? The rainbowfaces really must have been wrong for once.

 **"I see... So this is why you left your pack? To travel to the Great Valley and talk to them?"**

Specter laughed slightly.

"I can see now where Ruby got her sharp thinking from."

Upon mentioning Ruby, Arial and Orchid couldn't hold back any longer. They finally wanted to hear some news about their big sister.

 **"So, how is Ruby?"** Orchid exclaimed.

 **"Yeah! She is doing alright, isn't she?"** Arial added to her brother's question.

Specter threw a friendly smile at the two siblings.

"She's doing fine. More than fine, actually. She's grown up into a fine fastbiter, but she has never lost her heart or mind. She is one of the most intelligent and caring sharpteeth I will probably ever meet. But you knew that already, didn't you? Well, apart from that, she really helped me whenever I needed it most. I owe her a lot already."

The two siblings almost jumped for joy after hearing that. They have not heard anything from Ruby for quite some time, and even though their sister was a sharptooth now, they never stopped loving her for what she really was at heart. The adult fastrunners as well seemed very pleased to hear about Ruby's wellbeing.

Pearl then decided to get to the point.

 **"But you didn't just come here to tell us about Ruby, did you? You want us to tell you the way to the valley."**

Specter nodded once while giving his response.

"Yes, that is correct. Talking to those rainbowfaces is the only way I could ever find peace. And... I will not mention coming here, should something go wrong... You don't deserve to have your names..."

 **"We have no reason to distrust you, Specter."** Pearl interrupted him before he had the chance to continue this negative thought. **"Although I don't really understand your behavior... You seem to have good intentions if you're willing to subdue yourself to a horrible sharptooth like Thrasher just to find out where we live. I don't know why you even gave him a chance to get away, but it shows that you have a good heart. I see that Ruby still has a habit of making great friends."**

Specter was deeply moved by her words, but being who he was, he wanted to object. He didn't want this praise, didn't deserve this praise.

"I... Thanks, but... I don't deserve your kind words. I betrayed my pack... I abandoned them for my selfish reasons... And after leaving the valley, I will never return to them. I am anything but a great friend..."

The fastrunners were all taken aback by this statement, but Pearl quickly regained her composure. She knew all too well of these kinds of troubles. After all, her eldest daughter was fastrunner turned into a fastbiter. No matter if she couldn't exactly understand Specter's problems, the inner conflict he showed was apparent.

 **"Does that reason include the lives of others? Would staying with your pack have threatened these lives?"**

"Yes... An uncountable amount of lives... and a lot of other things..."

 **"Then you chose the harder right over the easier wrong. Nobody can blame you for that."**

Specter looked at the ground, but still gave a firm nod as his response. Seeing this, Detras decided that it would be time to finally offer Specter the help he has come for.

 **"So, about how to get you to the valley..."**

* * *

 **Some time later, in the pack's territory:**

"Has he wandered off again?"

Ruby turned around to the usual, annoyed voice of Cera, who was then taken aback by Ruby's earnest look of concern and fear.

"The others are already looking for him, but... I have a bad feeling about this. He has not talked much over the last few days, which means that there is a lot on his mind..."

"Oh please! I'm sure he just had another one of his stupid sleep stories and then ran off." Cera started, but she, too, had to admit that she was concerned. A lot, actually. A member of her pack was missing, there was nothing else to say, really. "Maybe he went to that one place where he always goes? Come on, Ponder, I'm sure we will find him around there somewhere."

Ruby nodded at this and both fastbiters sprinted off towards the place where Cera suspected Specter to be. For now, they still had hope to find him. But despite this hopefulness, Ruby could not push aside her deep concerns.

 _Please don't do anything stupid, Specter..._

* * *

 **And there we go. Didn't take me long to give in to my desire to write what's been on my mind.**

 **As always, I hope you like the outcome!**

 **Take care and have a nice day!**

 ** _Revised_  
**


	7. Chapter 6: The Misfit

**Chapter 6: The Misfit**

 _ **"Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down [...] until we make our own place in it." - Elizabeth Lowell**_

 **Just outside Hanging Rock:**

 **Splash! Shluck. Thud.  
**

 _Ok, that should be enough... How many did I catch? 5... 10... 15... 19? Meh... I really couldn't resist. They taste pretty good.  
_

 **Splash! Shluck. Thud.  
**

 _20\. There we go. This should keep me fed for the trip and also provide a nice parting gift for Ponder's family.  
_

Specter took a good look at the pile of dead fish on a large leaf, counting them once more.

 _Coelacanths... Huh! Never thought I'd get the chance to eat them one day. Guess I'm lucky that these are pretty big. I don't want to empty the closest source of food for my Oviraptor friends... Why are Oviraptors even living here? Shouldn't they live around Mongolia? Oh well... What's normal anymore?  
_

Upon mentioning the fastrunner family in his thoughts, Specter quickly turned around, placed his bloody spear on the ground for a second and wrapped up the leaf with the 20 fish of various sizes. Just as he was about to head back to the cave inside Hanging Rock, he took another quick look at the sky.

 _Sun's already up for quite some time now. I have to be fast. Let's be pessimistic here for once... Maybe I'll have three more hours._

He let out a heavy sigh at his thoughts.

 _A whole damn day they said... Even if I keep up my top speed in a few sections, I'm probably still looking at a four to six-hour journey. For once, Seeker and Ponder, I hope that you rush your decisions and send Spotter to Hanging Rock first. If he warns the valley of my arrival, he'll take the only chance I have away from me. The element of surprise._

* * *

"You caught all these for us?!"

 **"Why of course! Well... I do plan on eating some of them myself, but... I couldn't have asked for better help than yours! You even allowed me to stay here for the time being and listened to my story. Offering all of you a nice breakfast is the least I can do."** Specter responded with a smile to Arial's exclamation. The fastrunners have already settled on talking in leaf-eater again, and he was fine with that. He would need every single bit of practice he could get with that language in the next few minutes. He didn't even want to imagine what one single mistake could potentially cause. One single word that he might falsely translate into an insult, or a threat.

Thinking about it, he noticed that he had overestimated himself massively with his ability to quickly understand everything language-related. Humans had had a hundred times as many languages, but most of them were related in some way, which made it possible to understand at least some words that were exactly the same in one's first, second and maybe even third language. This had certainly been the case for Specter when he still was a human. However, sharptooth and leaf-eater were two completely different languages. Every single word was formed out of a different grunt, screech or roar in a different pitch, only a select few sounds being remotely alike. He knew that his progress was still incredible for any dinosaur, but that would not make the situation any better if he got killed on sight upon reaching the Great Valley or later on, should he fail convincing them of his good intentions.

 _Maybe I really should have waited longer... No! The longer I stay, the bigger the chance that I grow too accustomed to all this. Can't stop now! I'm almost there..._

His contemplative look did not go unnoticed by Detras of course, so the elder fastrunner was quick to interrupt Specter's pondering.

"Oh you shouldn't have! We are called Fast _Runners_ for a reason, and the last thing we need is a Fast _Biter_ providing food for _us_." Specter's slight laugh was evidence enough for Detras that he had the black fastbiter's full attention now, so he quickly continued. "But in all seriousness, Specter, I would not like seeing you again as a corpse. I take it that you know how the residents of the valley think about sharpteeth?"

Specter's laugh died in an instant and his face took on a grave expression.

 **"Yes, I know very well what would happen if I sneaked in and someone spotted me. Ponder and Seeker, and especially Path... had been quite... explicit when they told me how they got chased out."  
**

Detras frowned at this, controlling his emotions and somewhat rising anger, if only ever so tiny. When Ruby first told him about that night, he had been anything but happy for quite a long time. Although some part of him could understand the actions of the valley residents, considering everyone thought that their beloved children had been killed, another part of him still condemned them for that in some way. After all, they could have at least tried to let Chomper explain, not to mention that each of the changed fastbiters kept their respective colors from before.

However, as it was with most things in life, they only seemed ever so easy in hindsight, Detras was aware of that himself.

"I see... So, how do you plan on approaching?"

 **"Well... Considering I can speak some leaf-eater and am aware of most their names and secrets by now... I'm in a good position. I'll do this the straightforward way. Just ask ahead. Offer them some help maybe? I'd do anything to show them my good intents."**

"That is wishful thinking, Specter..." Detras responded dryly. He had already thought about that option himself, of course.

Specter let out a light laugh before giving an as dry response.

 **"You and I are more alike than I ever thought we'd be."** The elder fastrunner first looked at Specter in surprise, but soon realized what he meant with that sentence. And Specter was quick to continue. **"I know they'd probably like to kill me on sight... They don't know me and owe me nothing... and they're my food, basically. But I've heard that they owe the pack more than they could ever repay them. Maybe it's finally time to return a favor, if not directly to them. Besides... and that's also the reason I went alone... Well, I'm alone and would only stay for a single day. They can go ahead and observe me all the time, I've no problem with that. And there should be plenty of fish for me to eat. They wouldn't have to fear anything from me. So as long as I offer them my life in exchange, should something go wrong, I'd be fine."**

Now Detras really had to hold back his anger, and he was not angry with the fastbiter. What Specter proposed reminded him all too well of Ruby's tactic. And he knew how that had worked out for his daughter, in the end.

"Then you know that they will take it without hesitation, should they only find you near some younglings. Worse even, all it would take is for one of them to turn on you and tell a lie. You might be able to sense it, but nobody else would... Nobody would stand for you. You know what happened to Path that night. They won't listen to you. They won't even listen to themselves. You are walking towards your own demise."

Arial and Orchid shifted uneasily at this part of the conversation, and both of them moved a bit closer to their mother. Pearl as well seemed anything but comfortable. They all knew that Detras was completely right, and so did Specter. However, the fastbiter surprised them all with his reaction.

He smiled widely, flashing all of his razor-sharp teeth.

 **"Yeah, nobody of them has my sense of smell... And that's exactly what I'm looking forward to! I can be very... persuasive, should the situation demand it. And if it works on a two-footer..."**

The fastrunners' eyes all widened at that revelation. Of course, they had all wondered how exactly Specter had managed to get Thrasher to take him to Hanging Rock without killing him on the way. He had told them that he tricked him, but he did not mention how he did it.

"You... _lied_ to him. But... that doesn't make any sense!" Orchid exclaimed. Everyone knew about the sense of smell of sharpteeth and their ability to distinguish the truth from a lie. There was just no way Specter could have lied to someone like Thrasher in a way that obvious.

 **"Explaining this'd consume all the time I've left to reach the valley. Not gonna happen, I'm sorry. But it's good that we mentioned that piece of crap again. I'm sure the Valley would be glad to know there's one dangerous two-footer less around... Anyway, I'd get going now. Take your share of the fish, I'll just eat the rest and then I'll be on my way. I've bothered you long enough."**

The fastrunners all nodded hesitantly and grabbed their shares of the food Specter had brought them. They all looked at him somewhat uncomfortably as he just swallowed some smaller ones of the twelve fish that were left as a whole, and soon decided to eat their meal later. To Specter, that display was rather amusing, and he really would have liked to spend a bit more time with the fastrunners, but he was already far behind his schedule.

So, after he was finished with his quick meal, he jumped up and secured the spear in his vine-holster more firmly in preparation for some more speedy movement.

The four Oviraptors and lone Utahraptor gathered outside. They all gave Specter their farewells and wished him the best on his journey. The fastbiter bowed his head deeply as a sign of utmost respect before making one final appeal.

 **"Farewell, everyone. Thanks for everything. I hope... we'll see each other under better circumstances one day. And... I know I shouldn't be asking this of any of you but... If he comes looking for me, then please tell Spotter I wasn't here, you don't even know my name."**

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

"Wait! Do you smell that?"

Both fastbiters stopped their movement immediately.

"Yes! That's him! But... there is something wrong with that scent. It's quite old... and... Come on, Stern Claw, we have to be fast!"

It only took Ruby and Cera a few more moments until they finally found the origin of the scent they had followed. They were standing in a small clearing, quite close to the borders of their territory.

 _Why did he mark the area here? That's not a territory marking... Hmm... He was not afraid. He was feeling... Oh... Oh no...  
_

"Ponder! Come over here, fast!" Cera interrupted Ruby's thoughts.

She was quick to run over to see what Cera had discovered. In her mind, however, she didn't even need to. She already knew what happened to Specter.

"Wood chippings and splinters..." Cera analyzed.

But Ruby was indifferent about it. She just stood there in silence for a few more moments until she finally spoke up.

"The Great Valley..."

Cera looked at her in surprise.

"What?"

"Specter... He... He is going to the Great Valley. I just know it..."

"So just because there are a few pieces of wood and he felt sad about it... that tells you that he has departed to the Great Valley?" She had to laugh faintly, but she knew that Ruby was not the kind of fastbiter to just make such assumptions for no reason. She sighed before continuing. "What makes you so sure?"

"The markings. It was me who told him about how to leave a message behind for others. And this one right here means 'I'm sorry, but I had to do this'." Cera didn't retort anything this time. Instead, her face took on a more serious expression as she let Ruby continue. "Also... the wood. He has made himself a weapon. I worked on enough pointed sticks to know how it looks like after you are finished, and this is exactly how it looks like!"

All this made sense to Cera, but being who she was, she wanted to be completely sure.

"Alright, so his message was 'I had to go' and he made himself a pointed stick. So what? He is a big sharptooth, so he needs a lot of food. He's probably just on a hunt on his own."

Ruby wanted to go further, she already had her voice raised, but Cera was first in doing so and drowned her out.

"And besides... He doesn't even know how to get to the Great Valley! I know what you're thinking, Ponder... He mentioned going to the valley a few times. But remember that Seeker has told all of us often enough never to mention the way there to him. For his own good. And he never even asked about it in the first place..."

"Yes, but... I think he might know the way to Hanging Rock. And from there... he could ask my family for the way to the valley. They don't know about any of this."

"What?!" Cera exclaimed. "Did you tell him how to get there?!"

"No! Of course not! But in my song about my old home I always mention the scenery around, you know that! It's part of my song! How could I have known that...?"

Cera cut Ruby off with a heavy sigh.

"I know... It's not your fault, Ponder. So what he told us was true then... That 'humans are the smartest creatures ever'." Cera made the quote sound quite sarcastic, but deep inside she accepted it as the truth by now. It just went against her pride to admit it openly.

And there was more to it, as Ruby finished that particular quote.

"Yes, 'and the most dangerous ones'. We need to tell the others, fast!"

Cera could only nod this time. Both fastbiters took a deep breath and raised their heads into the air.

 **Roar! Screech! Roar!  
**

It was exactly the same call Ruby had used when she found Specter in her Thinking Place. The pack had long since already agreed on using the same call again, should anything else related to Specter happen again. This would also grant him a chance of coming back by himself.

But Ruby knew that he would not, and she couldn't condemn him for that at all. After everything he had told her face to face about his past life, she understood his desire to find true peace in this time by talking to the rainbowfaces about what he would be and what he wouldn't be allowed to do without destroying his former species' existence. And although he had never mentioned it this explicitly, Ruby just knew he was at least thinking about it this way. It was one thing using some kind of trick to alter his scents, but another to hear the deep pain and concern in his deep voice. Besides, most 'concepts' of life were beyond her, this was true, but Specter's predicament was a bit different. In his case, it was just simple logic.

But for now, Ruby could only feel concerned about him. If he actually planned on walking straight into the Great Valley, he would be in grave danger. Yet, there were also personal things involved.

 _But why did you just leave? Why did you just... vanish, leaving only this marking behind? We could have helped you! You will need it... You cannot throw your life away like that! And... do all of us mean nothing to you...?_

However, she didn't have time to ponder this further as Cera raised her tail and nodded at her. Moments later, both fastbiters were in a full sprint back to the pack's meeting area.

* * *

It took the pack about an hour to get together again. Their territory really was huge, even for the standards of the big fastbiters most of them just were. Then again, they had a two-footer with them as well, and Chomper alone was reason enough for any potential rivals not to bother them, even though he wasn't even fully grown.

But it was in moments like these when Littlefoot wished their territory was a bit smaller, just for the sake of complete overview.

"Alright, I can see already that nobody here has found a trace of him." He spoke to his assembled pack. "But Ponder and Stern Claw, you said you found his scent?"

Ruby and Cera stepped forwards and nodded, but it was Ruby who explained it to her mate.

"Yes. We found a marking and some wood. He made himself a pointed stick... and his marking says that he went on a journey..."

Littlefoot frowned at this, although the other fastbiters mostly looked at Ruby in confusion. Like Ruby, he knew what must have happened in an instant.

"So he finally went off, huh? I feared it would come to this one day... but I had hoped he would not leave this sudden..."

The other fastbiters all looked at him now. Nobody was quite aware of the implications.

"He... went to the Great Valley, didn't he?" It was Spike who spoke up this time, much to the surprise of the others. None of the packmembers ever got fully used to the vast intellect which was hidden behind his quiet demeanor. At least now that he was a fastbiter.

"I fear so, Finder." Littlefoot responded, then looking at the ground for a moment. He couldn't help but feel a bit angry with himself. Of course he wanted to help Specter, he was his newest friend and leader after all, but every one of the pack had children. They couldn't just all leave their territory behind for a journey with such an uncertain outcome. Sure enough, splitting up would've been an option, just like last time there had been a big problem, but since Specter had apparently made his decision long ago already... Littlefoot sighed heavily before continuing. "I just wish he had informed us first. I think we all could have vouched for him... But it's too late for that now. So, any ideas where he might have gone first? If I recall correctly, he shouldn't know the way to..."

"Hanging Rock!" Ruby quickly interrupted him. "We underestimated him. He must have known the way there from my songs..."

"And now he will ask your family about the rest... You're right, we all underestimated him." Littlefoot finished for her.

Silence fell over the pack. This situation was new for all of them. None of them was endangered by Specter's decision, but he just belonged to the pack. He was a friend. And fastbiters didn't just give up on a packmember and friend. It was a matter of honor for sharpteeth like them. Still, none of them quite knew what to do now. They couldn't just all go together and chase after him, the same went for small groups. Although the evidence to where Specter wanted to go was clear, he could have actually gone anywhere. It was far too risky to give up on their territory and take their children with them, or just to send individuals out on such a mission.

With a heavy heart, Littlefoot looked up at the nearest tree.

"Spotter! I have a favor to ask of you..."

A laugh escaped Petrie's beak, though it was out of anticipation of the task ahead of him rather than amusement.

"Me know what to do, it no problem. Me will check out Hanging Rock and ask fastrunners, maybe Specter still there?"

"Good, thank you. I guess we'll see you again later this day. And should you find him, don't hesitate following him. Who knows? Maybe you could still help him out..."

Petrie's expression turned serious immediately as he gave Littlefoot a firm nod and soared into the sky. The flapping of his wings was the last thing they heard before silence fell over the fastbiters once more. After a few more moments, Littlefoot broke it again.

"Alright, now we can only wait. I will tell Soar and his children that he will be on a mission..."

* * *

 **About two hours later, up in the skies near Hanging Rock:  
**

 _Me should have flyed faster! At this rate, me will never find him...  
_

Petrie has made use of his excellent eyes to continuously scan the ground below him for the whole flight, but he had found nothing. Absolutely nothing. The lands down there were not quite frequented in the first place, but for some reason, now that he was actively looking for Specter, they seemed to be even emptier.

But then he lowered his altitude when he finally spotted something of interest.

 _There... Footprints..._

He landed on the ground and quickly inspected the tracks. It was obvious whom they belonged to, since they showed that the dinosaur leaving them walked on two toes, only a fraction of the third one imprinted into the ground as well.

 _Fastbiter tracks... Very big, yet still from fastbiter. Must be Specter's! But... Oh no!_

He quickly took to the air again and landed a few meters further away. The footprints he was eyeing now were even bigger than the others, and they showed three toes. With an awful lot of weight on them.

 _Two-footer... Me hope me not too late!_ Petrie thought to himself as he ascended into the sky again, and this time he multiplied his speed by a considerable margin. Specter meeting a two-footer couldn't have gone well.

And it certainly had not for one of the two sharpteeth.

Another few minutes of flying went by, and Petrie was now slowly coming into visual range of Hanging Rock. Nothing else of interest so far. Then, however, after extensively scanning the gorge below him once more, he spotted something. Something big. His eyes went wide and he immediately dived down with all the speed he could build up.

He landed in front of a two-footer corpse. It was still fresh, and a crushed rock lay next to it. Only a few pieces of flesh had been ripped out, presumably by carrion flyers. The blood all around it had barely dried, and the sharptooth had a tell-tale wound, which Petrie proceeded to eye closely. It wasn't like any other he had seen so far, yet it seemed very familiar. The sharptooth before him had a round hole in his throat, but the flesh around it looked like it had been ripped from the inside. It also looked like as if someone had twisted the skin around it. Though Petrie was unable to see the two-footer's left flank, on which he would've definitely seen Specter's mark, the small wound was enough to go by for him.

 _Definitely from pointed stick, but... wound is surely looking strange... So...  
_

 **"Looking for someone?"**

Petrie jumped on the corpse and extended his talons at that sudden intrusion from behind him. But his stance quickly went relaxed again when he saw who it was.

"Mr. Fastrunner!"

Detras could only chuckle at the flyer's exaggerated reaction.

 **"You let your guard down, Spotter. Not a wise move in these lands."**

Petrie had to smile slightly, but the rest of his face kept the serious expression he has been wearing for most of the day.

"Well, me usually don't get attacked by fastrunners." He paused for a moment before continuing. " _He_? So, Specter..."

Detras' sigh interrupted the flyer. He had promised Specter not to tell Petrie about his stay here at Hanging Rock, but he just couldn't live with telling a lie like that.

 **"Yes... he was here... And he made quite the entrance. What you are standing on is his handiwork."**

Petrie looked at the corpse below his feet once more. His expression grew slightly dark, which Detras noticed immediately.

 **"Not what you're thinking. He used him to find the way to here, but this two-footer attacked him... He was lucky that my son was on guard duty last night. Orchid helped him out, but in the end it was Specter who delivered the killing blow. And believe me, it's good that he did."**

Petrie's expression softened up again and returned to the more serious look from before. He felt extremely relieved. For a moment there he had thought that Specter went on a rampage. And if he had killed a two-footer in such a fashion, he didn't even want to imagine what would happen if a threehorn angered him, should he make it into the valley.

And there was one particular threehorn that just had a habit of angering others with his blunt and careful opinions.

"And now he on way to Great Valley?"

Detras gave him a nod.

 **"He went off quite some time ago. He feared that you might ruin his chances to enter the valley... so he asked me not to tell you about his appearance here, but I know you just want to help..."**

"Yes, that why me here! Pack does not want him to get stomped by angry valley residents."

 **"And neither do I..."** Detras took a quick look in the general direction of where the Great Valley would be. **"But you need to be fast to catch him. I have never seen a determination such as his. If he kept up his speed, which I think he did, then he should be very close by now. Good luck, Spotter."**

Petrie nodded in affirmation, already extending his wings.

"Thanks, Mr. Fastrunner. Me will go then. And me will make sure to tell you if he made it into valley."

Detras responded with a friendly smile as Petrie took to the air again.

"I just hope you will get there in time..." Detras spoke to himself, in leaf-eater again, while trotting back towards his home.

* * *

 **Two hours later, at Saurus Rock:**

"Woah... I never thought something like this ever existed."

Specter stood in awe at the landmark before him. The gigantic pillar of rocks with a huge plateau on top was a sight to behold, although looking at the ring of teeth around Saurus Rock made him shiver slightly. He wanted to wonder how exactly this was even possible, yet tried not to focus on too many details.

"Wouldn't want to add my own to that... Jeez, this is actually kinda creepy, now that I think about it."

He stopped his monologue and looked at the sky.

 _Ok, I'm heading south... The valley should be just behind these mountains. Maybe it's time to think about what I will say to them..._

He pulled the vine around his body a little bit tighter and adjusted his spear before returning to his sprint. It would be less than an hour now, he deduced. He was about to take one of the biggest steps of his journey, and by now he had a beaming smile on his face. Still, he did not want to let his guard down for a single second, for he knew that the area just around the Great Valley must have been extremely dangerous. It was just simple logic. The Great Valley was supposed to be the biggest shelter for any herbivore in this time, and it was only natural for the carnivores to stay closely nearby in the hope of catching a few newcomers or the ones who might leave.

However, he has seen far more skeletons of carnivores than herbivores on his trip, which was not exactly the best omen for him. Then again, more dead sharpteeth meant less trouble. It was a matter of perspective in that case, albeit not a pretty one.

And he somehow felt sorry for all the long since dead predators.

 _Poor bastards... I don't even want to know how many of them starved to death... or turned on their own allies or packmates in their hunger._

It was only natural for him, now at least, to bear a slight grudge against leaf-eaters, since he was a sharptooth. What really bothered him was the deep hate between the two kinds. Of course he didn't expect the leaf-eaters to just offer themselves to the sharpteeth without a fight, and neither did he expect the sharpteeth to spare the lives of their prey. He was completely fine with an honorable fight to the death. What he wasn't fine with, however, was how the leaf-eaters actually lusted more for sharptooth blood than the sharpteeth lusted for leaf-eater blood, in some cases. Triceratops herds going out to crush some Tyrannosaurus or raptor eggs for example. There was no denying they were sometimes doing that.

And in his own time, the leaf-eaters had very often been depicted as the poor victims, and the sharpteeth as evil, mind- and heartless murderers without honor or regrets. He felt sick even thinking about it. Nature has left them with no other choice.

Those discussions have always enraged him. This shortsighted way of thinking. Humans claiming that every human was a born herbivore, despite the clear fact that humans were omnivores and had been hunters for thousands of years. How much he hated this stupid hypocrisy, he couldn't even begin to describe. They had needed at least some meat to get all the important vitamins and nutrients. And even if they had not, the act of killing for food was just a part of nature.

 _I might be a killer, but I'm not a murderer!_

To him, there was a big difference between those two, even though the outcome would be pretty much the same. To him, a killer was someone who took another life out of the sole purpose to sustain themselves, whereas a murderer took another life because they enjoyed doing it. But he knew already that the leaf-eaters wouldn't think about it like he did. To them, he was a stupid, cold, heartless killer and murderer alike. They wouldn't differentiate there. To them, he was a creature that stole their eggs and killed the old and weak. A creature gorging itself on their flesh and blood. A creature that took joy in their deaths. A creature only capable of bringing death and sorrow. A creature without the right to live on the same earth.

But could he really disagree? From their point of view? Could he object? Could he deny these accusations? Could he stand before his mother, should he ever see her again, and justify all this? Or was he just biased by his own existence as a sharptooth at this point? Did he already lose his empathy in the past weeks as a predator?

Specter had to sigh heavily at these thoughts. In the pack's territory, he had been one of the 'Choosers of the Dead'. He had picked his prey together with his pack and killed it to feast on its flesh together with them. However, he would hopefully soon be stepping into the leaf-eater fortress that was the Great Valley. He would be in their dominion then. They would be the Choosers of His Death. His future would be decided by them, by his prey.

He was so deeply caught in his cogitations that he didn't even notice he had traveled for at least another half an hour, and was now standing in front of a massive bluff. He started laughing out of multiple reason. Most prominently relief and joy.

 _I'm there... I'm... finally there!_

He was just about to make a decision on what to do now when...

 **Crash!**

"Ahh! Help me!"

...a loud rumble and this distant cry for help reached his ears. He was shaken out of his thoughts in an instant, and instead started sniffing in the scream's direction.

 _That's a... Saurolophus youngling? Multiple other leaf-eaters... and... two Utahraptors! But if this is the Great Valley, then...  
_

Forgetting about everything else around him, he started another sprint. One of the fastest he has ever done in his life.

* * *

"Help me! Please!"

"Hold on, Malka! We will think of something! Just... don't move!"

The little swimmer was trapped inside a small crevice in the massive cliff. She had no way of escaping, the two fastbiters right outside made sure of that, and her friends couldn't help her from way up the wall. It wasn't like they could've done something against two adult fastbiters anyway.

A rock which Malka stood on just moments ago had broken off right under her feet, and she slit down the cliff together with it. She had survived the slide unharmed, but as luck would have it, the two fastbiters have observed the children for some time already and were only waiting for something like that to happen. They were hoping for an easy snack now.

However, it wasn't as easy as they had initially thought. The younger one of the two reached into the crevice with his forelimbs and feet, yet couldn't quite reach the swimmer.

"Would you get that sap-sucker pest out of there already, Falce?!"

"The little shit is too far inside! I can't reach her! Instead of complaining all the damn time, Morso, maybe _you_ would like to..."

 **Shluck!**

Falce's sentence got cut short instantly as a large pointed stick drilled through his side, piercing both of his lungs and splattering blood on his brother, tainting his already dark red skin. He couldn't even scream. He tried to gasp for air multiple times to no avail, until he just fell over and onto the ground with a dull thud.

The scenery was wrapped into complete silence. It seemed like everyone had stopped breathing, one dinosaur certainly had. Morso stared in shock and disbelief at his suddenly dead brother before looking in the direction of where that weapon must have come from. And then he looked directly into the eyes of a huge, black fastbiter who stood only a few meters away from him now.

"You will step away from that swimmer now, or you will end just like your brother." The black fastbiter spoke with a voice cold as ice.

Specter displayed a menacing stance in his anger and disgust. He stood at his full height while extending his clawed forelimbs and raising his feathered tail to look even larger. Though he was expecting his sheer size to do the work for him, he already prepared himself for another fight nonetheless. He had killed that red fastbiter's brother, and didn't expect to get away with it that easily.

But he would be proven wrong.

Morso took one last look at the corpse of his dear brother before his feet. Then he suddenly started to shake, right before letting out a high-pitched screech. Having done that, he turned straight around and sprinted off into the distance.

 _And here I thought raptors fought with honor and were fiercely loyal... Cowards..._ Specter thought to himself with disgusted sarcasm.

He inhaled a few deep breaths before moving towards the dead fastbiter. He stepped on the corpse with one of his feet and, following a sickening sound, ripped out his spear from the body to place it into his holster again.

He sniffed the air another few times.

 _Ok, the swimmer is still alive. Her friends are up there somewhere... A female Triceratops and two... Those must be Gallimimuses, male and female. Are those rainbowfaces? Well, at least it looks like they all belong to the valley._

None of the children above moved a muscle. They could not even begin to comprehend what had just happened. They were even more shocked when the black fastbiter suddenly started speaking in leaf-eater.

 **"Alright, you can come out now. The two wimps are gone, one of them forever."**

They were all petrified. None of them even thought about showing themselves to the sharptooth. Specter's senses were overwhelmed with their scents of fear so he tried to concentrate on the little swimmer in the crevice. He bowed his head down and spoke up again.

 **"Malka, isn't it? Don't worry, I won't hurt you or any of your friends. I promise."**

The little swimmer was out of words or thoughts. But for some reason, she wasn't as scared of this fastbiter. He had saved her life, if only for another moment. It could have been a trick to lure her out, but he was talking in her language. And there was only one single pack of fastbiters she knew of, who could do that.

"Don't listen to that fastbiter! Stay inside!" Came an angry and fearful voice from above.

Specter looked up in an instant, and for only a split second he was able to make out the head of a pink threehorn. He started smiling a little bit.

 **"Cera would be proud of you, Tricia. 'Never trust a sharptooth'. But right now, it looks like you don't have any other choice, do you?"**

He could not see the three children above staring at each other in disbelief, so he just looked back at the crevice and was pleasantly surprised to see the little swimmer standing outside already. Her scents of fear were still extremely strong, but that was only normal for the situation she was in right now, Specter thought to himself.

"You are... not going to... kill me?" Malka's voice was still shaky but she managed to retain her posture.

 **"No. I'd never kill a child. Especially not when that child belongs to the valley and is the sister of two of my friends."** Specter explained and smiled at her slightly, while trying not to show off too many of his deadly teeth.

"You... know Ducky... and Spike?"

 **"Indeed I do, along with the rest of the pack. Who do you think taught me your language?"**

Suddenly, another voice spoke from above. In fluent sharptooth.

 **"Alright, what exactly do you want from us?"**

Specter looked up to the sight of Tricia and the two Gallimimus younglings. It was the male Gallimimus who had asked that question.

 _That beak... A rainbow... So, a rainbowface is a Gallimimus in this case. Hmm, they are a pretty common species, though, as far as I know...  
_

"What are your names and those of your parents?" Specter asked the firm counterquestion, back in sharptooth as well. He wanted to be completely sure that he would be meeting the right 'star people'.

The siblings looked at each other for a second before the female now gave her response.

 **"I am Axiom and this is my brother Datum. Our parents are Chronos and Logos. But why would you want to know this?"**

Specter couldn't hold back his beaming smile any longer, which made the children all look at him with great discomfort. But he didn't even care anymore. He had made it. He had reached his destination, and by saving the little swimmer he would even have some sort of welcome present.

"Because I will need to talk to them. You see, the Stone of Cold Fire that changed some of the valley's children was not the last of its kind..."

Datum and Axiom looked at each other in shock, but soon switched their attention back to the fastbiter and gave him an understanding nod. The two rainbowfaces and Tricia muttered some words to each other before Datum spoke up, in leaf-eater again.

"Then we will tell the adults to expect you... I just hope you will keep your word."

Specter's smile died down in an instant and his face took on a serious expression.

 **"There is too much at stake for me. I would rather kill myself than go back on my promise."**

The children could only nod at this. They exchanged looks with Malka down below once more before heading back into the valley. Specter now looked at the little swimmer again, lowered his body to the ground and gestured at his back.

 **"Climb up, alright? You'll need to show me the way, and I'd like to get there as quickly as possible."  
**

Malka first stared at him in confusion, but she soon moved towards him, climbed up his tail and sat on his back. Specter rose to his full height again and lowered his head in preparation for the upcoming sprint.

Though before he started his movement, he couldn't help but flex his neck around to face her with a toothy grin one more time.

 **"You should feel honored. You're the first leaf-eater ever to ride on a sharptooth, after all. Just hold on to my feathers. You know why I'm called a 'fastbiter', don't you?"**

"What are...?"

Malka didn't have time to finish her question as Specter sprinted off with tremendous speed. At least compared to what she was used to.

* * *

"Ok, head to the right now. That's the way to the main entrance."

Specter had already slowed down his pace and was now moving at walking speed, which was still fast for most leaf-eater standards. He didn't look at Malka as he nodded. He was too focused, and wanted to inquire a bit further about the upcoming situation.

 **"Any idea on what I will have to expect? Like how many guards? And of which kind? Threehorns, spiketails, clubtails?"**

"Well... we usually have two threehorns guarding this entrance. But... with that mean sharptooth wandering around..."

Now Specter was all ears.

 **"You know his name?"**

"No, the adults never told us. But I overheard a few of them talking about someone like 'Drasher', 'Rasher' or 'Gasher'..."

 **"You mean Thrasher?"**

Malka looked at him in surprise, although he couldn't see it.

"Yes! That must be him!" Her expression grew insecure then. "How did you know? Do you know him?"

 **"Yeah, but you best say I... 'knew' him. He won't be bothering anyone any longer."**

Malka somehow felt relieved, but couldn't suppress an audible gulp. She didn't exactly want to know the details of that confrontation, as the implications on what Specter had done to this Thrasher were pretty clear. She knew the two-footer was dead, another life taken by the sharptooth she was sitting on right now. It was only natural for her as a leaf-eater to be afraid of him, but she pushed these emotions aside for the time being. If it had not been for him, she would have been dead by now at the latest.

* * *

 _Looks like you didn't need help after all. Hmm... Me should probably still stick around, though._

Petrie has been observing Specter for quite some time now, ever since he saw him kill that one fastbiter. Which, being completely honest with himself, filled him with a lot of concern. That was one of his very own kind Specter had just killed, after all. And he had done it without a moment's hesitation. But Petrie dismissed this for now. He figured that he would've had to know the exact details, especially any words exchanged, to make up his mind about this. Surely, Specter had had a good reason for acting like this.

As of now, Petrie has kept a safe distance between himself, the valley and Specter, so that he would alert neither him nor the residents. Why would he want to get any closer? His eyes allowed him to watch over the black fastbiter even from this distance anyway. And he had to smile a bit at the sight of Specter carrying the little swimmer, presumably Malka, on his back.

 _Valley residents will be in for surprise... But me have to stay alert! It been quite some time since me last visited them. Who knows what changed?_

He took to the air again and flew towards a better vantage point on the valley entrance.

* * *

"She what?!"

"Daddy, please stay calm! I'm telling you, she's fine!"

Tricia tried to calm her father down as best as she could, but the elder threehorn truly was beside himself.

"Fine?! A sharptooth took her, and you're telling me she's fine?!"

"He will come to the main entrance to bring Malka back! You can see it for yourself then!"

"Damn right I will!" The dark grey threehorn male snorted. "And you will go to her mother now, and explain to her how all of this could have happened."

Tricia looked at the ground for a second, ashamed of herself, but gave her father a nod in the end before she ran off towards where the swimmers would be. When his youngest daughter was out of sight, the elder threehorn took a deep breath to calm himself. It had been such a peaceful day for a change.

Until now.

* * *

 **"How did that even happen? That cliff looked anything but safe. What were you children doing up there?"**

Malka looked down at the black and golden feathers on Specter's back.

"Axiom and Datum wanted to show us something... They said they 'planted' sweet bubbles on top of the cliff. No idea what that means, but we all thought it would be something nice..."

Specter had to smile at that. So those adult rainbowfaces knew indeed more than the casual dinosaur, and their children were already following them in their footsteps.

"But Tricia claimed she knew a shortcut and, well... you know the rest." Malka finished.

 **"What about the rest of your friends? If I recall correctly, I didn't see a longneck, a flyer or another threehorn."**

"Sauria, Flip and Charger? Their... parents already had them occupied for today so they couldn't come with us... Wait... How do you know them?"

 **"From stories. Long stories. I guess they can consider themselves lucky that..."** Specter cut himself off at the scent of four threehorns. The entrance was apparently close now.

"What's wrong?" Malka asked in surprise.

 **"Do exactly as I tell you from now on, alright? Just trust me for now... please. Otherwise, these might be the last steps I'm walking in my life..."**

* * *

"Ugh... Remind me again of why we are doing this, Toro?"

"Because we're told to. And besides, we're making sure the valley stays safe. It's your first time on guard duty and you are already complaining? Get used to it, Penta!"

The other threehorn let out an annoyed sigh.

"But this is so boring! Can't at least something happen for...?"

"Sharptooth!"

The four threehorns jumped up immediately and formed a line.

"Alright, there you have your action, Penta! Remember what I have told all of you! Lower your horns! Don't show any fear! As long as they can't smell it, they won't attack! Sharpteeth are cowards!" Toro exclaimed to his squad.

He was the oldest of them but still barely an adult. However, he had the most experience, given that he had spent most of his life in the Mysterious Beyond. And yet he was afraid, no matter how hard he tried to hide this, just like the other threehorns. That black fastbiter approaching them looked more than frightening, the pointed stick it was carrying on its flank and the little fact that it was as almost as tall as an adult threehorn itself didn't really subtract that. And it was coming closer with every step.

"Stop right there, sharptooth!" Toro finally yelled at the fastbiter. He knew it would not understand him, but that didn't really matter to him right now.

To his extreme surprise, however, the sharptooth seemingly obeyed his order and stopped immediately. The four threehorns just looked at each other uneasily for a moment as the fastbiter eyed every single one of them with deadly precision. It was sizing them up, Toro already figured.

But then all four threehorns' eyes went wide in shock, as the sharptooth laid down on the ground and seemed to mutter some words towards its backside. Moments later, a little swimmer jumped off its back and stood right beside the huge, yet luckily still prone fastbiter.

"Malka?! Is that you?" Toro sputtered. "What is going on here?!"

"Stand down!"

The stern voice from behind them made the guards almost jump, but they instantly recognized its owner, thus obeyed the elder threehorn and let him pass through their line.

Ever so slowly, the oldest and biggest threehorn closed the distance to the fastbiter until he was standing almost face to face with it. He looked at the pointed stick on its side for a second, which made him relax a bit as it confirmed Tricia's story, before speaking up.

"My daughter has already informed me of your arrival. I'm glad to see that you have kept your word. What is your name?"

"Yeah right, as if sharpteeth had na..."

 **Slam!**

Penta couldn't finish his murmuring as Toro rammed him in the flank with his frill.

"Shut up you idiot!"

The fastbiter seemed to be amused by that display, which angered and frightened the guards at the same time.

 _Battle injuries, dark colors, an attitude, respected and even slightly feared by his own kind... Yep... That's the one she's warned me about. It's nice to see you too, Topsy._ Specter thought to himself with an inner smile. His one broken horn made the elder threehorn really look like a battle-scarred warrior. Which he was, of course.

 **"Promise me that nobody of you will attack me without reason, first."** Specter then demanded.

The guards' mouths fell agape, but Topps remained calm.

"I promise."

 **"Good."**

The black fastbiter muttered another few words to the little swimmer, to which she nodded. Following that, she climbed on his back again and he rose back to his full height. Topps could only tilt his head slightly at that display.

 **"My name is Specter, and I wish to talk to Chronos and Logos. The rainbowfaces."**

"Why don't you let Malka go first and then we will see further? Taking a hostage won't exactly help us trust you."

Specter had to laugh slightly.

 **"I wouldn't exactly call her a 'hostage' when Malka agrees to stay with me willingly for a bit longer. I just need some kind of... uhm..."**

He was searching for the right word in leaf-eater, but he seemed to have forgotten it. This was quite the déjà vu for him. Breeze had once told him about a very similar incident with her own use of the leaf-eater language, but Specter just could not quite remember what it was.

 **"Assurance."** Came a voice from above.

 **"Wha-? Huh... I started to wonder when you would finally show yourself, Spotter."**

The flyer landed besides Specter, much to the surprise of Topps. The other threehorns were indifferent about Petrie's appearance, though. They were out of words for quite some time already.

 **"Some kind of assurance, yes. I promised your children already not to harm any of you, but I would like to be sure that you keep your part of the promise as well."** Specter then finished.

Topps eyed him for another few moments before he gave him a nod.

"I see... Fine. However, I fear the rainbowfaces are not here right now." He noticed Specter's shocked expression before quickly extending his sentence. "They went out for some 'urgent research', whatever they meant by that... Anyway, we expect them to return by tomorrow, or the day after, at the latest."

Specter looked at the ground. This was an unexpected turn of events, but he wouldn't just give up yet. He would not just turn around now, neither would he wait in some dusty cave somewhere outside of the valley. He had only one chance now. His ultima ratio.

 **"In that case, I hope you wouldn't mind if I stayed here for now."**

Now even Topps was out of words for a moment. This situation was getting crazier by the second.

"You're joking, right? A full grown fastbiter, staying in the valley for a few days?! Are you out of your mind?!"

Specter gave him an apologetic look at first. He then moved forward a bit until he really stood right in front of the huge threehorn and presented his now vulnerable neck to him.

 **"Should I do anything wrong, you have the right to kill me where I stand. I... could make myself useful! I can smell diseases, other sharpteeth, and I know a bit about healing. Please, just give me a chance! Don't turn me away after all this..."**

Topps was taken aback by this but he hid his emotions. He could not allow himself to show his feelings in front of the guards. What kind of threehorn would he be, if he were letting a fastbiter surprise him?

"You're serious, aren't you?"

Specter gave him a nod.

 **"Dead serious."**

And then a few moments of silence reigned over the assembled dinosaurs.

Malka shifted uneasily on Specter's back. She had heard a bit about the special gestures of sharpteeth from her mother, who knew those things from Ducky and Spike, but she had never seen a display such as this with her own eyes. It made a shiver run down her back, as she could feel how serious Specter really was about his words.

And Topps as well had his mind on overdrive. He knew this look in Specter's piercing, yellow eyes. It was almost exactly the same look Cera had given him all these cold times ago. A demanding look of acceptance, of resolve... and truth.

He let out a loud sigh.

"Alright... But you will need to speak in front of the Council, and they will have to accept you as well. This is not my choice. Petrie, can you vouch for him?"

 **"Yes."** The flyer responded firmly.

"Good, then you're coming with us as well. However, maybe we can make one exception for... Specter here, but there is no way we can allow two meat-eaters to stay. I'm afraid you will have to leave after..."

 **"It ok, Mr. Threehorn."** Petrie interrupted him. **"Me just here to make sure you don't stomp him on sight."**

Topps gave the flyer an understanding nod and turned around to the guards.

"Toro! Penta! You're escorting our 'guests'. Vaga! Rega! You will continue your watch."

The threehorn guards looked at each other for a second but none of them wanted to annoy the elder threehorn so they all stood at attention and replied in unison.

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

As the strange group of leaf-eaters and two sharpteeth among them finally stepped into the actual location, Specter was overwhelmed with the sight that greeted his eyes.

 _So that's the Great Valley... It's... wow... Just... wow...  
_

He could not even begin to describe the beauty of this place. Embraced by massive mountains, this was truly a leaf-eater's paradise. Vast lands with uncountable amounts of trees and smaller foliage lay before him. The thundering sound of the waterfalls in the distance could be heard even from where he was walking right now, and the multiple rivers all across the land looked like the veins of Mother Nature herself.

And there was life everywhere. He could see leaf-eaters of all different kinds and sizes. The massive forms of the longnecks in the distance, their necks reaching high into the treetops and some even far beyond. The many threehorns, minding their own business or grazing in the sunlight. The uncountable masses of swimmers, playing in the strips of water. And the flyers, hovering high in the skies. There were many other dinosaurs in smaller amounts he could name, and even more he had not even heard of.

"Welcome to Great Valley, Specter. It beautiful, is it not?" Petrie whispered from the perch on Specter's spacious back. He was talking in sharptooth again, so he didn't want anyone to think that the two of them were forging a plan with malicious intents. Especially considering that Malka, who was also still on the big fastbiter's back, felt very uncomfortable with the big sharptooth flyer right next to her. Even though she knew Petrie quite well, she was keeping a safe distance and clutched around Specter's neck.

"Agreed." Specter whispered back. He didn't want to talk any longer in sharptooth either, and being honest with himself, he was lacking the words right now to describe the place anyway.

After a few more minutes of walking, however, he got shaken back into reality again. Suddenly, this 'paradise' turned into hell.

The first residents had noticed the two 'guests'. They didn't mind Petrie too much, Specter on the other hand had their full attention. Their eyes were filled with surprise and bits of fear, but even more so with hate, disdain and disgust. If looks could have killed, Specter thought to himself, then he would have been killed ten times over by now.

 _So this is what it must feel like... To be hated... to be not wanted... to be loathed._

As a human, he had sometimes heeded the thought of becoming a soldier at some point in his life. Someone who fought for his country, someone who would keep his family and friends safe, someone who would give his life for a just cause. He quickly realized back then already that he had looked at it the wrong way, however. There was no such thing as a just cause in war, not to mention that he was just too empathic for such a line of work. But it was only now that he truly understood how a soldier must have felt like in another country, a foreign country at war in which they would have been an outlaw to the locals.

However, he wasn't feeling ashamed, nor did he have any regrets about killing all those leaf-eaters and sharpteeth since his arrival in this time three weeks ago. He had to confirm to himself again that he had no other choice. It had been either them or him.

Trying to distract himself, he scanned his surroundings. And amidst all these hateful looks that pierced through him, he noticed one that was completely different.

 _Wait... is that...?_

He had noticed that adult swimmer's scent for quite some time, but it was only now that he recognized it out of the million other scents in the valley. He flexed his neck around to look at Malka again, and compared the two scents quickly.

 _Yep, that's her mother._

 **"I think it's time for you to walk on your own again. I'm sure your mother would not want to see you sitting on the back of a fastbiter just yet. Or ever, for that matter."** He stopped for a second, sat down and let Malka slide down his leg. **"Watch the claws!"**

He gave her a slight smile and, as she was standing safely on the ground again, gestured towards the adult swimmer. Standing with her were multiple other swimmer children, two threehorns, two rainbowfaces, a longneck and a flyer.

 **"Your friends are already waiting for you. Thanks for playing along, Malka. I should be fine from now on."**

Malka gave him a concerned, but also relieved nod and ran towards her friends and family. Upon seeing how she was happily embraced by all of them, Specter looked forwards again. The guards were slowing their pace. It seemed like they would arrive at the meeting place soon.

But someone else seemed to have had the desire to inspect what all of this was about, as he could hear the crashing of footsteps.

"Mr. Threehorn? What is going on? What is Petrie doing here?" Only now, the gigantic, green Brachiosaurus noticed that Petrie was perching on something. A huge fastbiter was standing between the two threehorn guards. "And... why did you bring a fastbiter here?!"

Topps was quick to elaborate, though.

"Relax, Shorty! This fastbiter apparently belongs to your brother's pack."

Shorty's expression went slightly more neutral again when he saw Specter's pointed stick, but he still gave the threehorn an asking look.

"He wishes to speak in front of the Council. It looks like we will have another sharptooth living here for a few days."

He rolled his eyes at Topps' sarcasm, carefully but relatively neutrally inspecting the fastbiter.

"Well that's just great! I'll let the others know..."

* * *

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"Yeah! What is this sharptooth doing here?!"

"Are you out of...?!"

"SILENCE!"

The stomp following Topps' demand made the majority of the assembled dinosaurs go quiet very fast. Only some inaudible mutterings could now be heard among them.

"This fastbiter right here calls himself Specter. He has come a long way to reach the valley, and he even saved one of our children on his way..."

The mutterings grew louder for a few seconds, right before the crowd went completely silent.

"And he wants to speak in front of everyone here right now. So I demand of all of you to let him speak."

Angry and confused murmurings arose again, but they died down in an instant as soon as Topps gestured for Specter to step forward. This was his moment now. The moment of truth. The moment he had been preparing himself for since weeks.

 **"Uhm... Thanks, Mr. Threehorn."**

He eyed the crowd for a few seconds. Their looks made him cringe heavily, as he was obviously anything but happy with this situation. But he had already expected something like this. How else would so many herbivores react to a big, lone carnivore such as himself? He would've really liked some help with this, but it was clear to him that he would get none. Not even from Petrie, because could see him standing next to a large, female Pteranodon, and she had one of her wings placed around him.

 _That must be his mother, uhm... Volant, I think he told me was her name. She's actually a Pteranodon... So it really was true... Anyway, no help from him or her, it seems. I'm alone in this. Great...  
_

He took a deep breath before raising his voice again.

 **"So yeah... The reason I've come here is because I need to talk to the rainbowfaces. It's something... personal, and very important to me. However, Topps here has already informed me that they're apparently not here for the next days, so... I'd like to... uhm... Maybe stay here until..."**

He couldn't even finish his sentence as massive turmoil broke out among the crowd. Everyone was just wildly shouting and gesticulating. Specter knew that shouting back at them would only cause the crowd to eventually go violent on him, so he promptly decided to do what he would have done as a human in such a scenario. He sat down, lowered his head and closed his eyes as he waited for the angry mob to calm down again. It didn't take long until the first individuals started throwing their insults and accusations at him.

"So you can kill our children?!"

"How stupid do you think we are?!"

"You disgusting fastbiter!"

"Go back to where you came from!"

But Specter was actually happy to hear that because it meant the crowd was in the process of forming a universal opinion, which meant for him that he basically had to convince only a few of them, rather than every single one.

 _Silence and basic group dynamics... Works every time._ He thought to himself, still refusing to react until the crowd would become silent again.

He didn't have to wait long. Only at the point at which he started hearing his own heartbeat, he slowly stood up again.

 **"Listen, I'd only stay for a few days. After that, you'll most likely never hear from me again. I already promised some of your children that I'll not touch any of you. I'll catch myself some fish from the waters, that's it. I could stay in the caverns, far away from any of you. You probably won't even see me in the valley. I could even help you, if you would let me. Yes, I'm a sharptooth, but that means I can smell diseases or injuries..."** Nobody made a sound this time, so, after letting out a sigh, Specter finished his plea. **"All I'm asking for is a chance. One single chance. You have the right to kill me on the spot, should I harm any of you. I won't even fight back then... My life won't be worth anything anyway... You owe me nothing, and I don't ask any of you to trust me... but I'm begging you to put aside our differences for me. Just this once. If you don't want to believe the words of a sharptooth like me, then at least remember those that were mostly leaf-eaters once. The pack of fastbiters that risked their lives to defeat Red Claw. The Seven Hunters who saved the Great Valley... That's all."**

He bowed his head shortly before stepping back from his 'podium'. Topps took his place on the rock.

"Alright, you heard him. So, what will it be? Who is for him staying here until the rainbowfaces return?"

Life came back to the crowd and movement erupted, as some of the dinosaurs raised their hands or tails. But the majority didn't react at all.

"And who is against him staying here?"

Again, another few raised their hands or tails, but the rest kept indecisive.

 _Man... this is far worse than human democracy... They're deciding about my fucking life here..._ Specter thought to himself while observing the crowd.

"It's either 'yes' or 'no'. Is that so difficult?" Topps snorted in annoyance. "Now I ask you again. Who is _against_ him staying here? Anyone who does not vote counts as a 'yes'."

This time, with the help of Topps' little 'rule', a lot more of the assembled dinosaurs voted. Specter gulped when he saw the amounts of hands and tails that were raised now. It looked grim for him.

"Looks like we're tied." Topps noted after he finished counting the votes.

Specter's face fell completely. In that case, someone would probably change his opinion and vote against him. But Topps wasn't finished just yet.

"And I vote yes. It's decided then! He will be allowed to stay here until he can settle his business with the rainbowfaces..."

Specter wanted to jump for joy. He had completely forgotten that the threehorn had a vote as well. But Topps' continuation made these happy emotions disappear as quickly as they came.

" _However_ , should he cause the valley any harm whatsoever, may it be something as marginal as injuring someone, then he shall be killed on the spot. There shall be no mercy for him, just like he has demanded."

The crowd seemed pleased enough with this. There were still a few more discussions amongst them, but they soon died down as well and everyone scattered again.

Specter kept staring into the distance for a little longer, though. It was only now that he truly grasped that his plea had been a death wish as well, should he not tread with utmost care for the next days. And that was not easy when he was the only sharptooth among hundreds of leaf-eaters.

In light of this, Detras' thoughtful words echoed inside his head.

 _ **"Then you know that they will take it without hesitation, should they only find you near some younglings. Worse even, all it would take is for one of them to turn on you and tell a lie. You might be able to sense it, but nobody else would... Nobody would stand for you. You know what happened to Path that night. They won't listen to you. They won't even listen to themselves. You are walking towards your own demise."**_

But the calm voice of Topps shook him out of his thoughts.

"Be careful from now on, will you? You did not make this easy for yourself, but I admire your determination."

Specter turned to face the threehorn.

 **"Why did you help me? How did you know I wasn't lying earlier? You shouldn't be able to smell it."**

Topps chuckled faintly.

"No matter if leaf-eater or sharptooth... Your eyes are reflecting your heart."

 **"Did you... just go sentimental on me?"** Specter asked with a wide smirk on his face.

"Maybe I will, should I have to kill you!" Topps snorted in his usual tone again. "Now get lost already! Petrie can show you the way to the caverns before he leaves."

 **"Oh by the way, Cera sends her regards. And she was right about you. Hard frill, soft core."**

He had to dodge the angry swing of said frill after that, but Specter was more than happy at this point. His life was hanging by a thread, but that didn't change the fact that he had jumped over the most difficult obstacle so far. He would be allowed to stay in the valley for now, and he already swore to himself not to squander this chance. Then again, he would be dead anyway if he did.

He moved over to Petrie and his mother, who were still waiting at the same spot. Volant looked up at the approaching fastbiter, exchanged a few more words with her son, embraced him in her wings shortly, and took to the air again.

"What's wrong? Did I scare her away?" Specter asked with a hint of sarcastic sulkiness.

"She has to go back to children. She told me she will have enough time to talk to you anyway over next day."

"I suppose... So, Topps said you could show me the caverns where Ponder and Path lived once?"

"Oh, yes sure! Follow me."

* * *

It took the two sharpteeth some time to reach the caverns. They really were quite some distance away from all the other residents, but Specter was very happy about that. The farther he stayed away from everyone, the better for his own life expectancy. Some solitude would probably do him good as well.

"There we are! It not the biggest place, but you will probably fit in."

Specter eyed the entrance, shifting uneasily once more.

"We'll see..."

In the end, though, he didn't have to try too hard to squeeze himself inside. The entrance was actually bigger than the one to Hanging Rock. He scanned the insides for a while. It was quite dark and awfully silent, but other than that it was perfect. He would at least have his tranquility in here, time to think. He sat back on his haunches and immediately felt the exhaustion taking over his body. Physical and psychological exhaustion alike.

Petrie noticed this of course and wanted to quickly say goodbye.

"Me see you like it. Good! Me will head back to Hanging Rock then and tell fastrunners you're fine, and pack after that. They can't wait to have you back!"

And this made Specter finally look at him with sorrow eyes. A talk like this was exactly why he had struck out on his own.

"Spotter, I... probably will not see any of you again..."

"What you mean? Me can lead you back, and..." Petrie already started, nowhere near able to understand why the fastbiter had suddenly said that.

Specter's sad sigh interrupted the flyer.

 _I've already told Ponder a lot about that... Maybe it's time to let Spotter know as well. That way I only have to explain it once more..._

"Spotter... Why do you think I've come all this way? And why do you think I wanted to do this alone? You're smart. You can't be thinking it's just so I can talk a bit to Chronos and Logos."

"Well... You said it about former kind of yours, so me guess you afraid that other sharpteeth steal ideas and endanger your old kind."

Specter flashed a sad smile. Behind Petrie's speech impediment lay a logical and calculating mind that was able to think out of the box as well from time to time.

"You know, I have already laid this out to Ponder... Maybe you should ask her. It's just that... I'm a massive danger right now... to my old kind."

"You don't have to hunt old kind if you don't want to..."

Now Specter had to laugh slightly. If only it would have been that simple.

"My old kind has yet to exist, Spotter. And I will take their existence away from them sooner or later, if I'm to stay with the pack. Not to mention I don't even know why I'm here in the first place..."

"Me don't really understand..." Petrie responded in honest confusion, scratching his head. "If old kind not exist yet, how can you endanger them?"

"You will understand in time, Spotter. For now, return to the pack and let them know I'm safe. Then talk to Ponder. She will explain this to you, probably better than I could."

"Me still don't really get it but..." Petrie shrugged at this point, his voice turning happier. "Sure thing! Good luck, Specter! See you later!"

"Farewell, Spotter."

Specter's eyes followed the flyer as he left the cave and ascended into the sky again. He noticed that his vision blurred slightly. He quickly wiped his wet eyes with his forelimbs before curling up into a ball.

 _Farewell, everybody..._

The thoughts slipped away from his mind as he fell into an exhausted sleep.

* * *

When he woke up again, it was already dark outside.

 _Ugh... Great... Waking up just so I can go back to sleep again._

He stretched his legs and walked up and down for a bit inside his cave. He still felt slightly tired, but that would not be enough to make him find sleep again anytime. There was just too much on his mind. The immediate sadness was gone for now, but the replacement somehow hurt even more. Emptiness, or just simple lack of anything left to do for him but wait and do nothing.

 _Hmm... Reading is not an option anymore... And if somebody sees me running around outside I will probably be in trouble as well... Oh I know!_

It had been a long time since he had last sung a song. The last time was the first and only time he had done so in the sharptooth language. Or, to be more precise, in this new life of his.

 _Hmm... Maybe I could try to sing a song from my time? Let's see if the intonations still work..._

He played around with singing in sharptooth for a few minutes. He found that it matched the singing pattern of human songs quite well, and it would also grant him to explore the possibilities of that language when it came to vocals of songs he actually knew.

 _Hmm... Raptors had... have... extremely advanced resonating chambers... So I actually should be able to sing quite well... for this time at least... maybe... Now, which song?_

He thought about his current feelings and about his future, but nothing seemed to fit. Then he recalled images of the sharptooth skeletons he had seen on the way to the valley in his mind again, and he fell back into deep thoughts about them. His situation really wasn't any better than that of the dead predators had probably been. Sure, he was safe for now, but still, he knew that one mistake could end his life in a matter of seconds. And he could call himself lucky if the leaf-eaters would make his death a quick one.

Death was surrounding him.

Yes, he figured, he would have a conversation with death. A Chooser of the Dead would talk to none other than the one who claimed his victims' souls. Because at some point, the Chooser of the Dead would be chosen himself.

He raised his voice.

 **O, Death  
O, Death  
Won't you spare me over till another year?**

 **What is this that I can't see?  
With ice cold hands taking hold of me  
Well, I am death, none can excel  
I'll open the door to heaven or hell**

 **O, Death  
O, Death  
Won't you spare me over till another year?**

 **I'll fix your feet til you can't walk  
I'll lock your jaw til you can't talk  
I'll close your eyes so you can't see  
This very hour, come and go with me**

 **O, Death  
O, Death  
Won't you spare me over till another year?**

 **O, Death, how you're treating me  
You've closed my eyes so I can't see  
O, Death, please consider my age  
Please don't take me at this stage**

 **O, Death  
O, Death  
Won't you spare me over till another year?**

The last words of his song echoed through the caverns until there was silence. He took a deep breath and curled himself up again. For some reason, he felt free. Free from all the burdens that lay upon him, at least for now.

And with a free mind, he found sleep again rather quickly.

* * *

 **And there we go! This one is quite a long chapter, counting over 11k words, just because I felt like I wanted to pack everything into it. I could have maybe cut it in half and released two chapters, but I really didn't like the idea so I left it as a whole.  
**

 **I know, I know. I said I wanted to set the standards at around 7k words, but I guess a little overlength never hurts. :)**

 **Hope you enjoyed it! :)**

 **Quick side note: Specter's song at the end is of course "O, Death" or "Conversations with Death", which is an American folk song. I first heard it in the game "Call of Juarez: Gunslinger", where protagonist Silas Greaves sings this song, and it gives me the chills time and time again. However, I've changed the lyrics around a bit to better match the setting. I felt like it would fit Specter's troubled mind perfectly.**

 **Take care, and have a nice day!**

 _ **Revised**_


	8. Chapter 7: The Merciful Killer

**Chapter 7: The Merciful Killer**

 _ **"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice." - Abraham Lincoln**_

Another peaceful night ended for the black fastbiter, just like any other. It was the day ahead of him that would be different, his first, full day in the Great Valley. From this day on, for however exactly long, he would have to move around with extreme care or die for one, stupid mistake. It was quite ironic, because he felt that this would be exactly the same as in his pack's territory, only now it was up to his prey to interpret and judge him for his mistakes.

Specter dozily rose to his feet and stretched his legs before slowly moving towards his cave's entrance. Upon arriving there, calm and relaxed, he took a deep breath of fresh, morning air...

...and was immediately overwhelmed by the many millions of scents. It felt like a hefty slap to his face. Fully awake now he quickly jumped back a few steps and sat back down again, trying to control his senses. However, it was not anything like when he had arrived in this time after his change three weeks ago. It was more like waking up in a sea of food, he thought to himself while suppressing his instinctual desire to hunt now as best as he could.

This was something he had truly not expected, at least not in this way. He had calculated most of his journey through to the core, but what he seemingly forgot was the simple fact that by living in the Great Valley, he would also be living among the very creatures nature demanded of him to kill without mercy. Day by day.

 _I guess I knew that, but... it's THIS hard to control myself? How the hell did Path survive living here for so long without... snapping?_ He let out a sigh as he continued his thoughts. _Why did I never ask him...? Too late now, anyway... Hmm... Maybe it's because I'm getting hungry? Yeah, that will be it.  
_

He smirked. His upcoming actions didn't make him feel bad at all. He was more than looking forward to it, actually.

 _Alright, let's hunt then!_

With that, he jumped up, grabbed his spear and left his cave to find the nearest strip of water.

* * *

As Specter was traveling through the valley in a slow sprint, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable again. He really wanted to admire the beauty of this place in all its details once more, but instead he carried a strange feeling in his guts. He felt watched.

But he pushed this aside as soon as possible. He already knew he was being watched. Of course the residents would watch a Utahraptor of his size, no matter if he belonged to Seeker's pack. The question was just by whom? He recalled the sight of Volant briefly talking to Petrie before flying off again, and he was quick to draw the obvious conclusion.

 _Yes... makes sense... They're using the Pteranodons to keep an eye on me. Smart move. I'm just glad they are allowing me to walk around freely. Then again, what choice do they have? I doubt the threehorns would like keeping up with my pace all the time...  
_

He took a quick look at the sky. The sun was barely up yet, so he figured now would be the best time to sate his hunger. He didn't want too many of the residents to see his abilities with his spear and claws just yet, even though he would never apply any of these on them. After all, just a single, overly paranoid thought on their side was all it would take for him to lose his life, he confirmed to himself again.

A few minutes went by until Specter arrived at his self-declared hunting ground, which was a pretty large pond with several little torrents connecting it to the main river. However, he wasn't alone there. Two adult swimmers with five small children were already washing themselves or playing in the water.

Specter sighed in annoyance at the sight of the peaceful, happy family.

 _This won't do... They're scaring away my food!_

But the swimmers had a right to use the water, of course. So he put on a friendly face, as friendly as a large fastbiter with a massive pointed stick in his claws could have looked to a bunch of swimmers, and decided to ask the Hadrosaurs if they could let him catch some fish for a while. He was quite surprised when he noticed that his mood was beyond grumpy, that he actually had to fake his friendliness and rather would've actively scared the family away.

 _This is like mental torture... What on earth have I gotten myself into?! At least I won't stay long...  
_

He shook his head, loudly cleared his throat and walked up to the swimmers, who had not noticed him just yet.

 **"Good morning! Nice day, isn't it?"**

"Good mor-" The female swimmer started to respond happily. However, her sentence got rapidly cut short as the whole family had turned around and was now staring into the yellow eyes of this huge fastbiter. Each of them gasped, their own eyes widened in shock. Some of the children started shaking their heads in disbelief.

 **"So, uhm... You're doing alright, yeah? How's the water?"**

"Mommy! It's him! It's the sharptooth that killed aunt Wary!" One of the little swimmers suddenly shouted in anger.

 **"What?! Who is...?"** Specter sputtered, utterly taken aback by this accusation, but the dawn of realization cut him off at once. Something was seriously wrong here.

And then it hit him like a rock. The children. It was extremely faint because they were all in the water, but he knew their scents from somewhere. And he also remembered their appearances and species.

 _Parasaurolophs... Five children... No! No, this can't be! The bet... The thunder... The five children I let go... Their aunt... I... No! How?! Why me?! What have I done? Fuck!_

"Mommy! Daddy! Why are you just standing there?! Do...!"

"Silence!" The female cut her son off harshly. The little swimmer flinched and went silent immediately, retreating behind his siblings.

The two adult Parasaurolophs got out of the water and started moving towards Specter, not in any way rushed or aggressive, but highly determined. He was frightened to the core, but it was obviously not directly because of the swimmers. He knew that he could likely kill both of them within half a minute, should they decide to attack him. What he really was frightened of was what would happen if the swimmers told everyone about what he had done to one of their family members. Littlefoot's stories concerning Rhett, Ali and her mother Utu on that matter only confirmed his fear.

The two adults stopped right in front of him and looked at each other for a moment before switching their attention back to the fastbiter. The female spoke up with a firm voice, but sorrow eyes.

"Why...? Why did you kill my sister?"

Specter was out of words, never in his new life had he expected such a confrontation to happen. His heart was already pumping like he had sprinted for hours, and the thoughts in his mind raced back and forth. How would he get out of this one?

It had been easy for him not to care much about his victims when he lived together with only other sharpteeth. Of course he had thought he had a clear mindset on killing, but those were just thoughts in the end. The families of the creatures he had killed since being in this time never had the actual chance to speak to him about how much pain and suffering he had caused them.

Until now. And so Specter tried to be reasonable, justify his actions. Though the look in the female swimmer's eyes prevented him from building up anything close to a firm voice.

 **"Me and my pack... we were hungry, and... we found her and your children nearby... We had to eat, but... I didn't mean to... I... I'm sorry... I didn't know..."** At this point, Specter was just looking at the ground and he had to hold back his forming tears. Some part of his mind was disgusted with him because of that obvious and embarrassing display of weakness, but another part decided to start blaming him. _You obnoxious swine! You're a murderer! A cold, disgusting murderer! Look at what you've done! All of this because of a stupid bet! You have torn that family apart! Murderer! Murderer! Monster!  
_

The female swimmer as well seemed to be deeply caught in deep thoughts, unsure how to handle such a situation, but she did not hesitate long before speaking up again.

"I will never forgive you for this! You took the last sister I had from me! All my siblings are dead because of sharpteeth like you!"

Specter didn't even remotely know what to answer to that. Instead, he just continued to stare at the ground.

"And she, too, only had me. She has lost all of her children and her mate to your kind!" And it was right at this point that her voice suddenly dropped all the anger, as did her scents. "But... you spared my own children's lives... You left me with what I love most. Nobody... No other sharptooth would have done that. I would not know what to do if I had lost them as well... I don't know why you spared them but... Thank you... Did you... Did you at least make it quick for her?"

Specter didn't dare to look up anymore. The battle inside his mind was still going on. Two voices were now screaming at him, one after the other. _Weakling! Sharpteeth know no fear! You coward! Murderer! Monster! No! Kill them! They are food! They deserve to die! End it! Do it now! Kill!  
_

Finally, he gave his bitter response. It was one of the most disgusting lies he had ever told in his life because he knew otherwise by now.

 **"Yes... She didn't feel any pain... I would never let my prey suffer..."**

The female swimmer eyed him for another moment, then offered a silent nod. Her children, on the other hand, couldn't mount any reaction. Only at the point at which their parents turned around to them, the silence was broken when their father raised his voice.

"Come now, children. Let's leave him alone. I imagine all of us have gone through enough already..."

None of the children disobeyed their parents, and they all followed them back to their nesting area. But not until everyone took another look at the massive fastbiter who seemingly shed painful tears and suffered on his inside over the death of a swimmer.

When everything around Specter had gone silent again, he finally came back to his senses. He had held back his emotions the whole time and seriously needed to vent right now. Something inside of him gave in as soon as the awful silence embraced him.

In a twitchy and erratic motion, he rammed his spear into the ground and let it all out.

 **Screech!**

His ear-piercing screech cut through the air, into the skies, splitting sound and clouds, and caused some flyers and birds in the distance to jump out of their nests, taking to the air in panic.

* * *

 **Unknown location:  
**

 **Communicator Active. Level Six Encryption. Password Required. Please Authorize.  
**

"Purge."

 **Acknowledged. Scanning...**

A faint laugh could be heard as a flash of light illuminated a single eye for a few seconds.

 **Scan Complete. Identity Confirmed. Welcome, Commander.**

"I still find your humor highly disturbing, dear."

"This is not the time for jokes..."

"Is that so? Well, it would certainly help my understanding if you finally told me why we have traveled so far away."

"It's about the Stone of Destiny..."

"Excuse me...? The Stone? You know that was eight years ago, and it was the last Stone to ever be active on this planet. We got rid of Galek as well. He was powerful, sure, but not quite powerful enough to escape punishment for his crimes. He received justice, you saw to that. You saved this planet."

"Both of us did, dear. Still... I need to watch the recording again. Something doesn't seem right."

"Please, Logos, be reasonable! What could he possibly have done prior to his death? When you last talked to him, his fate was already decided."

"Our fate is never decided until we die... And I could imagine him having done a lot, actually. Give me just a bit of time while I check through this again. I will probably have to make a few calls as well..."

* * *

 **The Great Valley:  
**

The crashing of footsteps interrupted Specter's silent meal. He had smelled him for quite some time already but decided to ignore him for now and concentrate on his fishing. After he quickly swallowed the last of the 15 fish he had caught so far, he took a contemplative look at the extensive cloud of fish blood, seemingly hovering inside the blue water like a deep red plume, before turning around to the sight of the slowly approaching, lumbering, green longneck.

"The Bright Circle is barely up and you are already running around and hunting? Just what is wrong with you fastbiters?"

Shorty's sarcastic sentence made Specter slightly smile for just a moment, but he decided to be a killjoy and scientific about it. He really wasn't in the mood for jokes anymore.

 **"It's quite simple... I am warm-blooded and you are more or less cold-blooded."**

Shorty looked at him in surprise, thinking that Specter had offended him in a very subtle way, though he didn't understand what he exactly meant by that.

"Me, cold-blooded? Last time I checked I did not have to kill others to live."

Specter sighed and rolled his eyes at Shorty's response. Of course the Brachiosaurus wouldn't know about things like that, so Specter's response was as dry as his.

 **"That's... not exactly what I meant... But I guess you're right in a way... Anyway, why are you here?"**

Shorty eyed him for a few seconds, his face taking on a stern expression now.

"You should be glad it's me and not Mr. Threehorn! What were you thinking? I know this is hard for you, living right among your 'food'. My brother is a fastbiter as well, after all... But _this_?! We thought you attacked those swimmers! Volant and Vero told me they almost gave an alarm call! You know what that would have meant for you..."

 _Hmm... so it's Spotter's mother and brother watching over me... Good to know._ Specter thought to himself, ignoring the possibility that the flyers might have very well saved his life with their decision.

In any event, with an at least partially filled stomach now, he was able to control his emotions much more effectively and he decided that he was not sorry at all for killing the little swimmers' aunt. He even went as far as questioning if letting the children survive had been the right thing to do. He wouldn't even have been in this situation if he had just killed them as well, like it would have been perfectly normal for a sharptooth like he had been taught to be, he thought to himself.

 _Screw you, butterfly effect! I won't let crap like this happen again. Next time, no survivors then..._

He was fuming inside, too much of all this angered and confused him alike. Still, he put on an honestly sad face. As in another way, he was just testing his psyche on how far he would really go to ensure his own survival and that of mankind. Whatever way he looked at it, though, nothing could not cover up his troubled mind.

 **"Maybe that would've been only fair..."** Specter answered in the end. **"I took a lot from those swimmers..."**

Shorty grimaced for just a few seconds before his face took on a more neutral expression again.

"I really don't care what you did in your past. Just make sure not to do it again while you're here." He stated honestly. Specter gave him a hesitant nod and Shorty continued. "Now, I think it would be best for you to show yourself to the other residents a bit. By far not everyone knows about you, and I can imagine showing them that you're not dangerous in here would do you good as well. So, now that you have rested a bit and... had your 'meal'... would you like a little tour around the valley? Anything special you would like to see my brother told you about? I can't show you the other entrances or our defenses, but..."

 **"Fastbiter Rock."** Specter firmly spoke.

Shorty looked at him extremely surprised, a little bit angry even, but that was not because of the fastbiter himself.

"It's just a dumb old rock! Why would you want to see something like that?"

He had sworn to himself never to look at that stone again. It had taken his brother and, at least distant, friends away from him. And now Specter demanded of him to take him to the very stone which had turned his beloved brother into a killer and thus into his natural adversary, should he ever meet him again outside the valley.

But little did Shorty understand how alike he and Specter were in that regard.

And although Specter could obviously not read his mind, he did know a little bit about his past from all the pack's stories. So he could at least imagine Shorty's thoughts and feelings very well when it came to the strange stone.

 **"I know... But I want to see it because it's the same kind of stone that's messed up my life, too. Look... You may think that you've lost your brother to the stone, Shorty, but that's not true. Seeker, Littlefoot, whatever you want to call him, is still out there, still the same caring, brave and intelligent being he has always been. Only that he's a fastbiter now... He has to kill to survive. You might not have the chance to see him again anytime soon, but at least you can find peace, knowing that he's fine and alive out there with his mate and their children... And me...? I didn't only lose my parents and all my friends to that... 'thing'. I lost my whole species. My old kind. I will never be the same again..."**

Shorty kept silent for a few moments after hearing that. He wondered how much the fastbiter really knew about the stone, and he admittedly didn't really understand how Specter's logic about his 'old kind' was supposed to make sense, but that was not the point. Specter had successfully reminded him that separation didn't mean loss, but he still brought back the harsh memories that had haunted Shorty for a long time. The sight of fastbiter Littlefoot, not even much longer than a day after he had found out his adoptive brother was still alive and well, hungrily tearing into the swimmer carcass, gorging himself on its flesh and blood, was something he would never forget, even though that memory lay many cold times in the past.

He let out a deep sigh and raised his voice again.

"I understand... Alright, I will show you where it is then. Just... stick close to me."

Specter understood the implications perfectly, so he responded with a tone of seriousness he had rarely before in his life responded with.

 **"Like your shadow."**

* * *

 **The Mysterious Beyond:**

"Dad! They have surrounded us!"

"It's alright, son. I won't let them hurt you! Let me handle this and stay with your mother!"

The massive, grey longneck wore a grave expression but gave his mate and his little son she was carrying on her back a reassuring look as he raised his long tail and prepared for the inevitable fight ahead of him. He briefly scanned the enemies all around.

 _Five... Shouldn't be too hard._

The fastbiters of the slightly smaller kind were still in the process of testing him and his family. They did not attack just yet but rather sized him up, looking for any possible weakness. Though it was clear to him that the sharpteeth were not out for his blood. They only wanted his son's. The male longneck, however, was unfazed by that display. The fastbiters' constant sneering, screeching and roaring did not unnerve him at all. He has fought far too many sharpteeth in his life to be impressed by or even remotely scared of them. To him, the fight was already won.

"Feelin' lucky, fastbiter scum?!" He yelled, moving closer towards the predators with his body positioned sideways.

Their screeching grew louder for just a second, which was probably evidence for them arguing fiercely. And then one of them suddenly decided to make a move, to try and get past him. A serious mistake of the fastbiter, as it would come apparent to that sharptooth very soon.

The longneck swiftly moved one step back, swung his tail through the air with such speed that it got ripped apart, and smacked the jumping fastbiter full force with his tail to the neck.

 **Crack! Thud.  
**

One cracking sound followed another, then another, and then the fastbiter landed on the ground with its head almost ripped off its body.

 _Four... Stupid sharpteeth!_

The remaining fastbiters quickly extended the distance between themselves and him, but the longneck immediately closed it, his tail raised again for another deadly blow, should any of the remaining predators try to pass him another time.

"Yeah, run you cowards!" He yelled again, having never taken any form of joy in these confrontations. But the rush of adrenaline throughout his whole body had certain effects. He couldn't help but feel great. However, he had no idea that he was playing the fastbiters right into their claws in his frenzy.

Someone else needed to remind him of that.

"Dad!"

 **Screech! Slice!**

"Ahh!"

He swung his head around in an instant, but it was too late. The fastbiter pack had originally consisted of nine predators, he only noticed this just now, and the remaining four had simply gone around to attack his mate and son while he was distracted by the rest.

His face froze as that horrifying sound of ripping flesh greeted his ears. The one of the four fastbiters behind him had leaped at his mate and cut a massive wound into one of her hind legs.

"No!"

Not thinking any further, he turned around, lashed out with his tail in the same move and smacked another fastbiter in front of him away before running towards his gravely injured mate.

The fastbiters seemed to communicate with another series of screeches before scattering. They had already delivered a crippling blow. Now they would just have to wait.

* * *

 **The Great Valley:  
**

"Ok, here we are. This is Fastbiter Rock." Shorty noted with a sad undertone in his voice.

None of the dinosaurs had talked much on their little walk, but Specter still was immensely grateful to Shorty for giving him an opportunity to safely travel through the valley. The news of him getting rid of Thrasher and saving Malka had apparently spread rather quickly, and most residents now looked at him mostly in surprise and respect, rather than hate and disgust. Though, Specter really didn't want to fool himself. He knew that if he were to come too close to any of them, they would likely still kill him.

But for now, he was only interested in Fastbiter Rock, this surreal 'monument' right in the Great Valley. Specter knew that being here made Shorty extremely uncomfortable, and the same went for himself really. So he wanted to spare at least the longneck the reopening of the wounds of his past.

 **"Thanks for taking me along, Shorty. Would you mind giving me some alone time now?"**

"I thought you'd never ask..." Shorty answered with obvious relief in his voice. "I will stay close by, to be sure. Just call if you need something, ok?"

Specter gave him a sure nod in response, waiting until Shorty was out of sight again before fixing the stone with his eyes. It was lying in the middle of a crater, which was filled with water. Under normal circumstances, he would have found this to be a beautiful sight perhaps.

But at this moment, he had none of those feelings. Instead, he felt severe aggression building up inside him.

 _I hope you're happy now, you fucking stone! All these lives I had to take... everything I've lost... You just took me from everything I had without reason! I never asked for this! You made me do this, you piece of shit!_

He was borderline boiling with rage. He didn't even know where those emotions had come from, because all that the stone in front of him was, was a stone. Just a piece of rock. It didn't have a mind or soul. It didn't have feelings or emotions. Even if he desperately wanted to, he could never have performed revenge on it. A stone just like this had beaten him in a game which he never had a chance of winning, and it turned his feelings upside down.

Specter was so deeply caught in his mind that he didn't even notice the scent of a female Saurolophus closing in. When he finally grew aware of it, the swimmer was already standing a few steps behind him.

 _What's her name again? I think... Ura... Yeah, that's it..._

"Specter, isn't it?"

He didn't respond to that. He just kept staring at the stone in silence.

"I just wanted to... thank you... for saving Malka from those fastbiters."

Being the loving mother she was, Ura wanted to give him a sign of comfort. A sign that not all leaf-eaters hated him for what he was. A sign that he wasn't alone, even in the Great Valley. So she placed her hand on Specter's feathered back, but immediately recoiled from him again as he suddenly let out a deep, angry growl.

 **"I let one escape... They both deserved to die... Only weaklings attack children..."**

Ura was seriously shocked by his aggressive reaction. His words, cold as ice, made a shiver run down her back. Not to mention that it didn't make sense for a fastbiter to say such things. Taking a quick look at Fastbiter Rock, though, Ura quickly decided to leave Specter alone for now. Malka had already told her about what Axiom and Datum said the fastbiter mentioned, and she immediately realized that Specter must have had a history with the Stone of Cold Fire himself. She would have liked to know about his true relation to it, but she also didn't want to agitate a fastbiter like him with her questions.

So she quickly went off again, feeling sadness and pity. Maybe she would get another chance to talk to this black fastbiter under better conditions, she deduced.

Only after her scents grew faint, Specter took a deep breath of composure.

 _What the hell are you doing, you damn idiot?! At this rate, I'm gonna be dead by the end of this day! I need to control my..._ His mental self-punishment got cut short, however, as his sensitive ears picked up distant commotion in direction of the valley's main entrance. He turned around and focused on the sounds, mostly loud bellows. _New arrivals? Nah, can't be. Why would they make such a fuss? Something must have happened..._

So he sniffed the air a few times, intending to filter out a scent that didn't fit all the others around. He was standing downwind, so it didn't take him long to find what would confirm his worst suspicions.

 _Blood..._

He took a few steps forward and sniffed another few times to make sure of his discovery, but there was absolutely no doubt about it. The smell of blood was something so deeply imprinted in a carnivore's mind that a mistake on his side was impossible.

"Something wrong?"

Specter seemed to not even notice the loud and sudden appearance of Shorty, who was looking at him with concerned eyes. For everything the longneck knew, the fastbiter's stance and behavior could've only meant one thing. He was picking up a scent and prepared for a hunt.

"Hey, Specter, are you alright? What are you...?"

But he couldn't finish his sentence as Specter sprinted off into the underbrush, with such speed that Shorty lost sight of him in mere seconds.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going?! Oh, crap..."

* * *

 **Unknown location:**

"Ah, Commander Logos. It is [happy time] to see you again!" The metallic voice of the communicator translated a series of warbles into leaf-eater. **  
**

"Pause!"

 **Acknowledged.**

The image of an insect-like, alien species, hovering inside the dark caves, stopped moving at Logos' command. An annoyed expression started forming on the female's face.

"Didn't you want to have the communicator recalibrated long ago already?"

"I did indeed. But since we hardly ever use it in the first place..." She responded to her mate's assessment. None of them had used the high-tech device very often, as they always had to leave the valley for some time if they did. They couldn't allow any of the residents to see the communicator, of course. Her face took on a more contemplative look as she continued. "I think it's finally time."

Logos switched her attention back to the perfectly ball-shaped, black rock on the ground.

"Initiate recalibration sequence."

 **Affirmative, Commander. Initiating Communication Telemetry. Updating Language Files.** ** **Recalibrating Translation Data.** Please Wait...**

* * *

 **The Great Valley:  
**

"By the Bright Circle! What happened to you?!"

The brown longneck was first to break away from the cluster of dinosaurs that had formed around the new arrivals. At first he had thought that his good friend has returned to stay in the Valley for a while, but his feelings of joy were soon crushed when he saw that the even bigger, gray longneck had his flank and tail dripping with blood and was supporting his mate, who had a nasty wound on her hind leg.

"Fastbiters." The other longneck almost spat that word out. He knew that the sharpteeth had inflicted an injury on his mate that would mean her certain end, should she not receive treatment soon. He certainly was not a dinosaur of many words, but he wanted to let his friend know a bit more. "I'm fine, Bron. Two of them went around and attacked Dara... They followed us for quite some time. We barely made it without another fight..."

Bron grimaced. Now he knew why the family was here but there was one big problem.

"Doc... I fear the rainbowfaces are not here right now..."

Doc as well contorted his face for just a moment. He knew exactly what that meant. The rainbowfaces were the only dinosaurs he knew of who could have possibly saved his mate's life. But now, it seemed like all hope was lost. Even if he could prevent her wound from getting an infection, she would never be able to walk normally again. The open cut was just too big.

"D-... Dad...?"

He flexed his neck around to look at his son, who he was carrying on his back now. The little longneck's eyes were wide open in fear.

"What's wrong, Stomper?"

"Sh-... Sh-... Sharptooth..."

Doc immediately swung his head around to see what his son was looking at. And then his green eyes met piercing, yellow ones. His face took on an expression of multiple emotions, most dominantly anger, as he now, too, noticed the large, black fastbiter standing between all the other residents.

"What is the meaning of this?! Why is a sharptooth in here?!"

Nobody seemed to bother too much when the fastbiter broke through the lines and started slowly and carefully moving towards Dara. Doc raised his blood-smeared tail in an instant, preparing himself for another attack.

When Bron spoke up again, however, he almost fainted.

"We didn't get acquainted just yet, but... he's not dangerous. Apparently, he will stay here until the rainbowfaces return. And... if I recall correctly, he knows a bit about healing as well."

It was the first time in his life that he truly was out of words, Doc noticed. Even though he never talked much, he always knew what to say, should he be forced to. But right now, he didn't.

Specter only stopped his movement when he stood right next to the female Diplodocus' hind leg, looking up at her and her mate for a moment.

 _ _These are Diplodocuses..._ So the big one is this 'Whiptail', Doc... and this must be his mate. What was her name again? Dara, I think... _He thought to himself, then proceeding to eye her injury with utmost precision while sniffing at it few times. _Hmm... Not good... No infection yet, but... she has lost way too much blood already, and a wound like this will never heal by itself... She needs a miracle...  
_

His face grew dark. Not only were his senses on overdrive at the smell of Dara's exposed flesh and fresh blood, to the point where he wished he would be allowed to rip apart and eat her, but there was also another conflict raging inside of him. There actually was a way to help her, to end her suffering without the need of a so called 'miracle', but he refused to do it right now. This was something he had decided three weeks ago already.

The shaky voice of Doc interrupted his thoughts, however.

"Can... you really help her?"

He looked up at him and their eyes met. He could see great amounts of anger and distrust, but just as much pain and despair. It was the look of a being that has lost too much already and was about to lose another being it loved with all its heart. Specter decided he just could not do nothing in that situation. He had to at least try. Still, he would be forced to impose certain conditions. To him, this would be the only possible way.

 **"I think I can. Take her to the caverns and wait outside, I have to prepare something first."**

Audible signs of relief could be heard all around. Nobody had expected something like this. For all the bystanders knew, at least the ones that had been there when Specter made his speech in front of the Council, he could have just as well lied about knowing how to heal others.

The obvious look of distrust in Doc's eyes did not change, but he still gave the fastbiter a nod and gestured for Dara to walk a few more steps again. Specter retorted with a nod of his own before turning around and sprinting full-speed towards his shelter.

* * *

 **Unknown location:  
**

"Ah, Commander Logos. It is good to see you again!"

 _Finally!_ Logos thought to herself after hearing the correct translation of that sentence at last. She continued to listen closely to the recording, but most parts stayed exactly like she remembered them with the outdated translation.

"Fast-forward."

 **Acknowledged.**

At the affirmation from the device, the hovering image speeded up multiple times, emitting the warbles in a way higher pitch now.

"Pause. Normal speed. Play."

 **Acknowledged.**

"I... doubt I will ever see the stars again, Commander. You have made sure of that."

Following this sentence, the hovering image suddenly disappeared and the communicator emitted a series of high-pitched beeping sounds.

 **Warning! Phonetical Anomaly Detected. Accurate Translation Was Not Possible. Please Advise.**

The two rainbowfaces looked at each other in confusion.

"Clarify." Logos demanded.

 **Scan Shows Multiple Possible Translation Errors. Sentence Is Subject To Interpretation. Best Solution Has Been Chosen Automatically.**

"How many others are there?"

Logos grew more and more uneasy at these revelations, for she knew that the language of her old kind was extremely complex. And she also knew that her former superior, Galek, had been a master with words. It became common knowledge after his death that he had established his power with lies and deceit. He had had his cronies in every department, and although almost all of them were caught over time, a few loyalists must have escaped. Some always did. Or even worse. Some of them might have carried on with their dirty work unnoticed.

 **Commander, Please Spec...  
**

"How. Many. Are. There?!" Logos now demanded with an almost aggressive tone. She has never believed that something like this would ever happen.

 **Scanning... One, Commander.**

Her face went dark.

"Show me."

 **Affirmative. Playing Sequence.  
**

The image of the alien creature was hovering once again inside the cave. Only this time, both rainbowfaces were standing right next to each other and listened with maximum attention to the metallic voice of the communicator.

"Burn... Both you and earth will burn, Commander. Cold fire will rain upon you."

And this made the rainbowfaces stare at each other in shock. Following a nervous gulp, Chronos spoke up.

"Logos? I think we might have a problem..."

* * *

 **The Great Valley:  
**

Specter rose back on his feet as soon as his nose picked up the oncoming scents. Right next to him lay a pile of leaves, still soaked with water, and a few plants similar to those he had heard about having curing effects in his old life. He picked up one of them and eyed it for a little while.

 _Doesn't smell toxic... Its sap looks like some sort of a gel/wax mix... might be helpful... But you never know._

Of course, the minimal knowledge he had with plants would only be really relevant so many millions of years in the future that he wasn't sure if the plants were even the same kind he remembered seeing. Chances were, they were not to ninety-nine percent. So he only wanted to use them in a case of emergency. Poisoning Dara would have been the last thing he needed right now, he deduced.

When the massive forms of the approaching longnecks were in visual range, Specter turned around to his cave and took a careful sniff. He was able to pick up a very slight note of an, at least to him, extremely pungent scent.

 _It's still faint... Good. The few openings on the other side are really exhausting the smoke... None of them should be able to smell it..._

It took the leaf-eaters another few minutes until they finally arrived at the caverns, which was rather unsurprising when one considered their sheer sizes. Dara was supported on one side by Doc, who still had Stomper on his back, and Bron on the other.

 **"Good, you're here."** Specter spoke up at the huge Sauropods as they stood before him. **"Lay her down and help me with these treestars. We have to clean the wound before I can do anything."**

Doc still didn't like this at all, but he complied with the fastbiter's orders and helped Specter with the wet leaves. He had no other option anyway. It was either trusting a fastbiter he didn't even know or letting his mate die. The choice was rather easy in that case.

Dara winced in anguish as Specter pressed the wet leaves on the nasty gash, but she managed to remain focused. Still, Specter was losing hope by the second. Cleaning the wound was painful enough for her already, but what he planned on doing to close it would be a hundred times as painful. He had serious doubts she would survive that in her current state.

 _It's time..._

He turned around to the other longnecks, took a deep breath and raised his voice.

 **"Alright. Leave us alone now. I will handle the rest."**

To say the others were taken aback by this would have been an insult to their emotions.

"What?! You think I will let her alone with you?! You disgusting...!" Doc already started, but Specter cut him off at once.

 **"Yes, you will! Either that or she dies. And it won't be my fault then... Your choice."**

It pained him to treat the longneck like this, but he had to do it. He was so close to reaching his goal, he didn't want to mess everything up now. He ignored Doc's angry murmurings and looked at Bron.

 **"And you... You will take Volant and Vero with you. Nobody else will stay here besides me and her, understand?"**

Bron had mostly stayed calm when Specter demanded of them to leave, at first. He knew they still had the flyers watching over the fastbiter. But now his face fell. With them gone, too, they would have no assurance that Specter wouldn't just kill Dara and run off. He just wanted ask how he even knew about his observers when a new voice in this argument spoke up.

"Please... just listen to him... Do it for me."

Doc bowed down his head close to Dara's.

"Never! I won't let you alone with this sharptooth! Not in your state and not..."

Dara laughed faintly, expectorating a few times. Doc wanted to prevent her from consuming her remaining energy in that way but she was determined to defy him in this matter.

"Think... about it... for just... one moment. If he... really wanted to... kill me... why would... he agree... to help me?"

Doc didn't know what to answer to that. He knew she was right in some way, but he refused to accept her logic as his. Still, he did not want to object her wish. It could have been her last, after all. He raised his head again and looked back at the fastbiter.

"If you hurt her..."

The aggression in his voice didn't need any interpretation. It was a clear death threat.

Specter, however, was unimpressed. His life was already on the line just by being here, and the residents could have just as easily kicked him out of the valley for not helping a dinosaur in need. Besides that, he has made a promise to help the residents. He would never go back on a promise, he confirmed to himself.

But as much as he wanted to promise Doc that Dara would recover, he just couldn't do it. It would have likely been a lie. And although he had no problems with lying when necessary, he felt like it was not correct to do so in this case. Not when the life of another was on the line in the current situation.

 **"I can't promise anything. You will just have to trust me on this."** He ultimately responded in forced dryness.

Bron noticed the growing tension between those two, so he decided to finally leave the fastbiter to his work. Every moment wasted with arguing lessened the chances of Dara's survival, after all. He let out a series of bellows into the sky, and a few moments later, two flyers descended from above. They both looked at Bron in confusion, to which he just gave them a nod and gestured for them to follow him. He would have enough time to explain this breach of a clear agreement later.

"Doc! Come on now."

Hearing Bron's voice finally made Doc grow aware of himself again. Hesitantly, he turned around and followed his friend away from the caverns. Even after he had lost sight of them, Specter waited another few minutes to make sure they were truly gone. Only now, he walked up to Dara's injury again.

 _Ok... the wound is clean, but... Argh... I just hope this works... I'm not a goddamn medic...  
_

"Tell me... the truth. Will I... survive this?"

Dara's broken voice shook him out of his thoughts. He moved over to her head, lowered himself downwards and gave her a slight smile.

 **"If you survived staying with a longneck like him for all those cold times, you will survive staying with a fastbiter like me for a little while."** Dara couldn't help but faintly smile herself after hearing that. Specter's smile quickly disappeared, however, as he continued. **"Listen... This will hurt... a lot. You have to stay awake, you understand? Don't ever close your eyes."**

Dara gave him a sure nod, but her scents of fear and blood were overwhelming to Specter, the urge to just kill her was coming back in full force. It was like nature tried its utmost to prevent him from doing what he was planning on doing. But if there was one thing humans were unparalleled at, he deduced, it was defying nature. He decided to finally get over with this, so he turned around and ran inside his cave.

 _It should be ready now... Good thing I left my spear here this morning. Let's just hope this works..._

He stopped in front of the source of the pungent scent he had checked for earlier. The scent of fumes, of burning. The scent of fire. Preparing all of this had taken him almost half an hour, searching for suitable materials to attach to his weapon and lighting the fire with a few sticks excluded. Luckily, the longnecks had been so slow to get here that he was able to afford being careful about his preparations.

He picked up the spear and eyed the now dark red glowing stone, which he had connected to it earlier.

 _Yes... must be hot enough now. Time to put this out..._

He kicked another pile of soaked leaves into the fire pit. The sizzling sounds gave him enough proof that the fire was now out so he swiftly moved back to his 'patient'. He was hiding most of his spear behind his body as he moved in on the prone longneck.

 **"Ok, everything's set. You ready for this?"**

Dara only responded with a weak grumble. She was in a seriously bad shape by now.

 _Shit... this is not looking good. Her vital signs are fading..._

He let out a heavy sigh and spoke the next words in sharptooth again as he raised his spear.

"Forgive me for this..."

* * *

"This a thing now? Letting sharpteeth into the valley like that?" Doc murmured, still having serious problems with the situation. There was no way he could have relaxed now, when his heavily injured mate was alone with such an oversized fastbiter. "How can you trust him like that?"

"I don't 'trust' him, Doc." Bron pointed out. "But there must be a good reason why he's here. You know not all of them are..."

"That sharptooth is not Littlefoot!" Doc exclaimed in his anger. "I don't know how he learned our language, and to be honest, I don't care, but he is not anything like your son was and still is!"

Bron laughed slightly.

"Maybe not, no. But why would that be a bad thing? If my son is friends with him, I doubt he has any intentions to do us harm. It's the only reason I have voted for him to be allowed to stay. I know, Doc, this might seem..."

Bron should not be allowed to finish his calm and friendly explanation. A female scream, full of pain and suffering, interrupted him harshly.

"Dara! No!"

Doc immediately jumped up together with his yell and ran with all his speed towards the cry. So did Bron after picking up Stomper and putting him on his back, but despite his smaller size he had big problems keeping up with the way bigger longneck.

* * *

The scent of burnt flesh. That was everything the fastbiter noticed right now. It was a scent beyond disgusting to his new self, but he was actually happy to smell it right now because it silenced his instincts and he could think clearly without having to fear that he might attack the prone longneck at any second, should he give in to his desires for just a single moment.

 _No more barbecues for me, I guess... Now, maybe I could use the sap on her after all..._

So, Specter's work wasn't finished just yet, it seemed. The wound on Dara's hind leg was completely, and mostly miraculously, closed. But it still looked ghastly, her flesh and skin around it heavily disfigured, and thus Specter decided to eventually apply the sap of one of the plants on it, though he used the backsides of his fingers to do it. He had to twist his arm around to an unnatural position, to the point where he almost broke his non-pronatable wing, but better that than scratching the barely healed injury open again, he thought to himself.

Specter would have really liked to take a nice bath in the warm mud pools right now, after all this immense stress and anxiety, but the loud rumbling of the ground and crashing of footsteps indicated only one thing. A massive, male, seven meters tall and thirty meters long, dark grey and extremely angry thing.

 _Oh, shit... Why did you have to scream so loudly? Just... How do I deserve all this?_

"YOU!" Doc's bellow boomed through the clearing as he violently smashed multiple trees over, charging at the black fastbiter with all his speed.

Specter had already expected something like this after Dara's scream, so he was quick to jump multiple meters back. Fighting someone like Doc alone would have been certain death for many predators, pretty much _every_ predator, and Specter only had a few weeks of experience as a fastbiter. Dara was still borderline unconscious, so the only hope he had was that Doc would notice the healed cut.

Fortunately for him, the massive longneck did. As soon as he laid eyes on it, Doc aborted his charge at once, his hate-filled scents just as suddenly vanishing. He as well could smell the scent of burnt flesh, although it was much fainter to him. This was not of his interest at all, though. No, his eyes only widened when he saw how little of the injury was left on Dara's hind leg. For all he knew, not even the rainbowfaces could have treated such a wound to this extent.

 **"She must not move around too much for the next days..."** Specter carefully explained from his position, totally exhausted by now. **"And she will need a lot of water. But other than that... she will be alright."**

A few moments of silence passed, and none of the dinosaurs dared to move a muscle. Time seemed to pause right now. Bron and Stomper had finally reached the scene as well, but both of them could only join the awkwardness of this situation. Only when the signs of life slowly came back to Dara and she slowly rose back on her feet, the flow of time seemed to continue. It cost her great amounts of energy, but with determined movement she started moving towards the fastbiter.

"Dear..." Doc started, seeing how his mate was actually able to stand on her own, but Dara ignored him for now.

Instead, Dara bowed down her head and nuzzled the black fuzzball dearly, a gesture which Specter retorted with a soft purring sound. For the first time in this still young day, he felt truly relaxed.

 **"You're welcome."**

* * *

 **And this is how I would like to conclude chapter 7. I'm sorry for the delay but as you might know, the FanFiction login server was down for multiple days because of the power outage in Los Angeles (at least that's what I've heard), so I could not work on this chapter for quite some time.**

 **I still hope you like it!**

 **The next chapter will probably come by the end of next week.**

 **Until then, as always, take care and have a nice day!**

 _ **Revised**_


	9. Chapter 8: Failure

**Chapter 8: Failure  
**

 _ **"When you have lost hope, then you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope." - Pittacus Lore**_

 **One day earlier, in the pack's territory:  
**

"Ah, Spotter! I hope you bring us good news!"

The pack was quick to gather around the homecoming flyer after hearing their leader's voice. They were all expecting to hear about the, at least mostly, successful journey of their newest packmate and friend, and Petrie was more than happy to relay exactly that.

"Yes, indeed! Specter make it into valley unharmed, and they even allow him to stay for few days. Fastrunners are fine as well now."

"Why 'now'? Was my family not fine before?" Ruby asked with a lot of surprise and concern alike. The last time she has heard from them, they had no problems whatsoever.

Petrie's response came immediately, although his voice lost most of the happiness it carried before.

"There be... complications..."

The sharpteeth were all ears now. Even though it had been rather likely that Specter would have eventually ran into trouble on his way, they obviously never hoped he would. Pretty much all of them didn't think too much of this, as it was surely just something minor. And if Specter was indeed in the Great Valley now, he would soon return as well. Besides, how much trouble could a single fastbiter have caused?

"What sort of 'complications'?" Littlefoot then carefully inquired.

"Well... Apparently, he meet bad two-footer around Hanging Rock... and two-footer meet his end there."

The short, shocked silence after that was broken by a shattering, amused laugh.

"Hah! I knew I could train even grown-up ankle-biters! He was a pain in the rump with his constant desire to do things his way... but it looks like he _did_ learn! I think he owes me a nice meal once he returns!"

Chomper's boisterous words made everyone laugh or at least smile again. Everyone except the sharptooth flyer himself, whose face took on a sad expression. Not only did Petrie know that Chomper's training sessions had not helped Specter all too much in his fight, but now there also was a far more pressing point to mention.

"That... be only second complication, me fear..." He explained. The surprised and asking looks of the pack didn't need any interpretation. Petrie turned towards Ruby, thought about Specter's words for a moment and raised his voice again. "Me not really understand what he mean, but... He tell me to speak to you about that, Ponder. He say he be danger to his 'old kind', and that... he not coming back to us."

Ruby's face fell completely. She had hoped it would never come to this, but that was exactly what happened. Now it would be up to her to explain this to the rest of the pack, she thought to herself. How much she feared for this painful talk ahead, she couldn't even begin to describe.

However, Littlefoot spared her from that burden for now.

"Ah, don't think too much of it just yet. He's confused, and that's just normal. Give him some time to sort his new life out. I'm sure everything will be fine once he gets to talk to the rainbowfaces, you will see!"

Petrie nodded at that but he still had his doubts. Specter's words had been way too serious and determined to be the utterings of a 'confused' fastbiter.

"But rainbowfaces not in valley right now. Mr. Threehorn say they return tomorrow or day after."

"Then you could just check for him the day after that." Littlefoot offered with a friendly smile.

"Me guess so..."

* * *

 **The present, in the Great Valley:**

"Thank you... for saving my mom, Mr. Fastbiter!"

Specter could only tilt his head at the little longneck's words. Stomper was noticeably bigger than most of the other longneck children Specter had seen so far in the valley, but still small enough to be extremely afraid of the fastbiter in front of him. And who could've blamed him? Specter certainly couldn't, now that he tried to look at himself from Stomper's point of view. The longneck seemed to try his best not to show his fear, but his scents were something he couldn't hide. Also, his words made Specter feel a tiny little bit insulted.

 _'Mr. Fastbiter'...? Do I look like an old geezer to him or what?_

His thoughts were quite sarcastic but they just as well brought up horrible emotions with them. There had been not enough knowledge about the lifespan of dinosaurs in his time, but Specter suspected that he most likely wouldn't get as old as an average human, roughly 80 years. For all he knew, he could die of natural reasons in as little as 10, 15 or 20 years at the most, if not even way before that out of 'environmental' ones. And while he wasn't afraid of death per se, it was the uncertainty in it now that plagued him.

Still, as always, he didn't want to share his feelings with the creatures surrounding him. He had a hunch that a melancholic fastbiter would have been the last thing Doc or any of the other leaf-eaters needed on this day.

 **"Don't mention it, really. I've made a promise to help with whatever I can while I'm here, and I always keep my promises."**

The little longneck gave him an unsure nod, but he still wanted to ask one final question.

"You are not like other sharpteeth I have seen so far, but... we... will be enemies out there... won't we?"

As much as Specter wanted to deny both, he couldn't. Doc would have told his son the harsh truth sooner or later anyway, if he didn't already know it himself.

 **"Yes. But not enemies. Adversaries."**

For just a few seconds, Specter could see Doc looking at him in extreme surprise. The huge Diplodocus decided not to comment on Specter's words, however. Instead, he offered him a short bow of his head. Specter figured this was the highest praise he could've got from someone like him, so he answered with the same gesture.

He still carried a smile on his face as he watched the longneck family depart again. Only the fourth, and second biggest, Sauropod stayed with him for now.

"A fastbiter, healing leaf-eaters... Would you believe that?" Bron spoke up in jest after a while.

 **"I sure wouldn't..."** Specter responded, but in an honest fashion.

"So, now that that's over... I hear you are friends with Littlefoot and his pack?"

 **"That's a really, really long story... But if you've the time, I'd be happy to tell it to you."**

"Would you mind telling the rest of the adults and children, too?"

 **"Of course not. I wanted to speak to some of them anyway... Lead the way."**

As Specter followed Bron by his side, he was very much looking forward to another bit of storytelling. It would also give him a chance to apologize for his rudeness earlier on this day, especially to Ducky's and Spike's mother, Ura. For now, he was expecting the rainbowfaces to return by dusk, so he didn't mind passing some time by living the life of a Great Valley leaf-eater for a day. A peaceful life, free of the constant hardships of sharpteeth.

Still, it involved killing for him. He would have to hunt for fish again, sooner or later. While their flesh tasted acceptably good, it was nowhere near as filling as the tasty meat of a longneck or a swimmer. He immediately decided not to indulge in memories of his previous hunting habits, though, for obvious reasons.

* * *

 **Unknown location:  
**

 **Specify Recipient.  
**

"Counselor Themis."

 **Acknowledged. Establishing Uplink.**

The image of an insect-like species hovered once again inside the dark caverns. This time, however, it wasn't a recording anymore. The creature seemed to widen most of its six eyes at the sight that greeted it. And it didn't take the communicator much longer to translate the excited warbles into the leaf-eater language.

"Logos! Chronos! My goodness! It's been what? In your planet's time... Five years? How are you two doing?"

Logos had to smile for a moment as she and Chronos bowed their heads, but her joy soon disappeared from her face again.

"Six, to be exact. Themis... I'm..."

"Oh don't even start, Logos!" The metallic, female voice of the communicator cut her off. "You two have done so much for Planet Earth and the Consortium... We all know that you're officially... 'exiled', so of course you have to keep communication at a minimum. No need to apologize for that. Now, what is it you need?"

Logos gave her a short nod before getting to the point of this conversation.

"Take a look at this..."

She then used her forelimbs to make a few wiping gestures, interacting with the hovering interface before her. A few minutes of silence followed. She could see the facial features of her longtime friend, Themis, going through multiple changes, ultimately freezing in an expression of what Logos could only interpret as overwhelming surprise and horror.

"Themis..." She started again with a calm voice. "Have there been _any_ incidents since back then?"

The implications of that were clear to everyone. Eight years ago, Themis sent Logos a recording of Galek's trial and execution. And while it gave both Chronos and Logos much ease, it had brought just as much uncertainty with it. They knew someone like Galek wouldn't just die like that. Since that day, the recording has been a reminder that it would truly be over at some point. A reminder that both of them could finally live on in peace as a family. Only that this point has never been reached, apparently. Not quite yet.

"No Stone in our possession is active anymore." Themis slowly elaborated. "We have tracked down each and every single one of them..."

Audible signs of relief could be heard coming from the rainbowfaces, both thinking that the danger had been stopped in its roots. However, Themis was not finished.

"...but four years ago, several of our offensive capabilities went missing. We thought it wouldn't be much of a big deal, at first. We quickly found and neutralized them all... Except one. Investigations were closed for quite some time after that. Then, not even three years ago... our border patrol found an abandoned ship... less than a lightyear away from your system. And now... you show me _this_..."

Chronos and Logos briefly exchanged worried looks. After a while, Chronos raised his voice.

"So, what you're saying is that... someone has fired a Geocide at us?!"

"No, that's impossible." Themis firmly made clear. Her voice had calmed down noticeably and she was now speaking in a more matter-of-factly fashion. "There is no way something like that could have possibly eluded our scanners. Not after what this certain someone tried to pull off on your current planet. If it were to be a tactical strike, however..." She took another contemplative pause before finishing her speech. "Chronos? Logos? I advise you to seek shelter, wherever you are right now. I will arrange an in-depth scan around Sol at once. I just hope this recording means nothing... We'll be in touch."

"We will. Thank you, Themis." Logos concluded.

Everyone did their respective gesture of a parting. And then the communication link was broken.

"Logos, we have to return to the valley, just to be sure! Maybe they will have to evacuate... And if they won't listen to us, then we need to get at least Axiom and Datum out of there!"

"Agreed. Let's hurry!"

Logos quickly picked up the communicator again and grasped it firmly in her hand. Moments later, both rainbowfaces were moving back towards the valley in full speed.

* * *

 **Several hours later, in the Great Valley:  
**

It has been a very good day for Specter so far. The conversation earlier between himself, the adults and their children lasted hours, but he had enjoyed himself so much that he completely forgot the time. He had been more than happy to relay the good news of the pack's wellbeing, and telling them that he had somewhat 'saved' Littlefoot and Ruby on his first hunt earned him some plus points as well. Obviously, mentioning that he had ripped the longneck to shreds made Bron, Utu, Sauria and Shorty noticeably grimace, while mentioning the death of the threehorn did the same to Topps, Tria, Tricia and Charger, but he had already figured before that he couldn't avoid telling them about that as well. It was just part of his nature, and it would have been foolish to try and cover it up in front of multiple adults, who all had their personal experience with sharpteeth, he deduced.

Nevertheless, Specter once again felt free and at peace with the world and himself. He almost felt sad at the upcoming events, as he would most likely never see the valley and its residents again. If anything, not under nonviolent conditions.

 _Speaking of some violence..._ He thought to himself while slowly trotting towards the nearest river.

* * *

He had hoped for a peaceful meal in silence now but the amount of eyes staring at him in multiple emotions made it hard for Specter to enjoy his catch.

 _To think that even in this time, they manage to make a freak show out of something like this..._

Nevertheless, it didn't annoy him as much as he had thought it would, so he just continued ripping apart the plentiful fish. He had left his spear in the caverns after dealing with Dara's injury, and now children and adults alike were as much curiously as fearfully watching the tall fastbiter doing his gory work with his clawed forelimbs and razor-sharp teeth. Some of the older or braver children even worked up the courage to inspect him in more detail. They were taking particular interest in his massive sickle claws, though even the slightest of movements from those deadly weapons had caused most of them to jump a few steps back several times.

 _I guess they can't help it, can they? Most of them have probably never seen a carnivore yet... or ever will again. This place is too safe for their own good...  
_

Specter quickly glanced at the setting sun, which was about to disappear behind the mountains, and decided to head back to his cave soon. The rainbowfaces would probably return tomorrow, he now thought to himself, and he wanted to use the remaining time he had until then to sort out his mind for the many questions he would need to ask them.

That was when he picked up a new scent. The scent of this creature he had never smelled before in the valley, it was quite close to what he would have described as 'unique', so he knew exactly whom it must belong to. Of the many strange dinosaurs the gang had met in their past and told him about, this one truly topped it all. He turned his head slightly and fixed the teal Microraptor, who perched on a tree branch quite a bit above, with one of his eyes.

 **"Huh... Look at that. I never thought I'd see someone else like me in here."**

Some children in his vicinity gasped heavily in shock and ran back to their parents, thinking that another fastbiter was suddenly in the valley. However, they soon relaxed again when the teal Microraptor hesitantly jumped off his branch and landed next to the huge, black Utahraptor.

"Wh... What do you mean...? 'Someone like you'?" He asked.

 **"Oh, come on. You're basically a tiny version of myself. Just that you can fly."** Specter responded with a smile.

"What?! But... I... I'm not a fastbiter!" The glider made clear with quite a bit of insult in his unsure voice.

 **"Yeah, true, I guess. But... Let's see. You have feathers... uhm, these things..."** He rose one of his forelimbs and presented the feathering on it. **"... and I have them. We're both hunters... well, you hunt these 'ground crawlers' and I hunt the... 'big stuff'... but we're quite alike in that regard, still."**

The Microraptor didn't know what to respond anymore, and by now Specter noticed that his clarification of the glider's nature probably only made him feel bad, so he decided not to go any further with his desire for scientific correctness.

 **"Uhm, don't think too much of it. It's just funny because... Well, I'm a 'fastbiter', and where I come from we call your kind... uhm... 'fastglider'... or something like that."**

The glider looked at him with wide eyes. He had his full interest now.

"You mean... there are others like me?"

 **"Why, of course!"** Specter started again, laughing slightly. **"You may be different from everyone here, but you're never alone in this world."**

Both raptors were slightly smiling now, and Specter was happy to have turned around this conversation.

 **"Anyway, it's nice to meet you! You must be Guido, right? What's it been...?"** But then Specter cut himself off as he caught sight of two rainbowfaces, Axiom and Datum, charging into the direction of the entrance.

 _What are those two up to? Wait a second..._

He sniffed the air a few times. It didn't take him long to filter out the two scents he had been searching for, and they confirmed his speculation. A smirk appeared on his face.

 **"Excuse me. Maybe we can talk later."**

Not wasting any more time, Specter jumped across the river in front of him and engaged in a full-speed sprint as well, leaving the confused form of Guido in its dust. He would not head to the entrance just yet, however.

 _Better safe than sorry..._

* * *

"Mommy! Daddy! You're back!" Both little rainbowfaces exclaimed in unison before jumping into their parents' arms.

Chronos and Logos happily embraced their children, not uttering a word about the possible danger from the sky. They didn't want panic to break out, so while on their way they had already decided to wait for Themis' call first. And while they waited, they were very much looking forward to a relaxed evening,

Little did they know that their children were not the only dinosaurs eagerly awaiting their arrival.

"You won't believe it, mommy! Someone came all the way from the lowlands to talk to both of you!"

"Yeah! He even saved Malka from two sharpteeth... and he speaks our language!" Datum joined his sister in her excitement.

Chronos and Logos shortly looked at each other before switching their attention back to their children.

"What do you mean by that, Datum? 'He even speaks our language'?" Chronos inquired. He didn't like this at all, but he had to know for certain.

"Well... he's a fastbiter. But he's nice!"

Both adults looked at each other again. They were growing more and more uneasy as the seconds passed. A new fastbiter in the valley, waiting for them? They just wanted to ask for more details when a new voice spoke up from behind them.

 **"Chronos and Logos... We meet at last."**

They jumped around to the sight of a big fastbiter standing just a few meters away from them, wielding a massive spear in his claws.

Specter wore a smile on his face and had his weapon lowered, but still presented a cautious stance. He knew how to deal with some creatures from this time by now, but the two adult rainbowfaces were something he could not predict at all. For all he knew, those 'star people' could have carried advanced weaponry with them right now.

"Who are you? And what do you want from us?" Logos demanded. She still had Galek's last words ringing inside her head. 'Both you and earth will burn'. 'Cold fire will rain upon you'. And now a fastbiter stood before her, his feathers black as the night, speaking the leaf-eater language and a weapon in his claws he wasn't supposed to even know of.

 **"I am called Specter."** He responded while bowing his head shortly. **"I would like to talk about a few things with you... in private, if that's ok."**

Chronos gave his mate an asking look, which she retorted with an expressionless face. Logos needed some more time to make up her mind. Though, ultimately, she had no other option but to see what this would be about.

"Fine... Come with us. Axiom? Datum? Why don't you play a little more with your friends until we have solved this?" She then concluded.

The little rainbowfaces knew that this was more of an order than a suggestion. They noticed their mother's deep concern, of course, but still trusted her decision, so they went off to find their friends again. And as soon as they were out of sight, Chronos and Logos fixed Specter with careful eyes, gesturing for him to follow after them to their personal cave.

* * *

"... and now I'm here. I understand that this must be hard to believe, but... Please, you have to help me get back to where I belong! To my time!" Specter was explaining in sharptooth again. Having heard Axiom and Datum speak it had only led him to the conclusion that the adult rainbowfaces could speak it as well, and it would make it much easier for him to explain himself, as he did not quite yet grasp most words in the leaf-eater language he needed to use in this conversation. Even the smallest of details were extremely important here.

 **"Wait, wait, wait..."** Logos spoke up. **"One thing after another. You said you were something else before you 'changed', so what were you? What 'stone' did you touch? And what's with this talk about being from another time? You know it's impossible to time travel, right?"**

Specter took a deep breath to sort out his mind. Only now he noticed his nervousness, but he couldn't understand where it came from. He had no problems telling the pack about this topic, so why did he make a mess out of it when he was talking to the supposedly smartest creatures in this time, he wondered.

"Yeah, but... Ok. Ok, let's start from the beginning. See, I was a human once. You know, the creatures that have an upright posture, walk on two legs, have five fingers on each hand, use tools, are omnivorous, incredibly smart, drive cars, fly planes, landed on the moon several times, and..." He noticed the asking looks of both rainbowfaces so he cut his sentence short right there. "Never seen one or heard of them?"

They shook their heads, although Chronos frowned slightly and decided to make a comment.

 **"Sounds like a highly advanced species of primates... None of which are living on this planet, though."**

"Not yet." Specter made clear. Then, another thought crossed his mind. Although it would be highly unlikely that it would be the case, he wanted to be sure. "Well, since time travel is apparently not possible... This _is_ Planet Earth, right? Eight planets in this solar system... The sun, or Sol by its scientific name, being the only star, and Earth being the only planet where life exists?"

 **"How... do you know all this?!"** Logos sputtered.

"It's common knowledge for what I was, really..." Specter responded. He let out a sigh before continuing. "So this still is my home... But I'm not lying! If dinosaurs exist here and this is Earth, then I am more than 60 million years too early to be alive! 65 million years, actually."

Chronos needed some time so sort out his mind, too. After a while, he raised his voice again.

 **"Alright, let's just assume it's true what you're saying, for now. Tell us about that 'stone'. Every single detail."**

"Alright... So, it was late at night. I was outside to smoke a cigarette... and then there was this blue glow in the sky. Before I could even react, it crashed down right next to my house... without any noise. I wanted to call for help, but my cellphone had stopped working..." Specter ignored the surprised looks of the rainbowfaces and firmly continued. "...so I went to investigate it. It definitely was a stone, like a small asteroid, and it was very brightly glowing blue. I thought it was nothing special so I went ahead and touched it, and..."

 **"And...?"** Both rainbowfaces impatiently asked in unison.

"And that's all I can remember. I think... that I spoke some words to it, but that memory seems so... blurred now. It... felt like it forced me to speak those words... And after that, I woke up in a forest, quite some distance away from here, and looked like I do now. It took me a while to get used to this body as well. I was just lucky Seeker found me and took me in. I would've been dead by now, otherwise."

They put their heads together and briefly muttered some words to each other before Logos raised her voice again.

 **"So you're telling us that he took you in like that? He told you about us, and it took you only three weeks to learn an entire language?"**

"Well, I've always been quick with learning languages... And yes, Seeker took me in just like that. Those were even his own words! I don't know why he did it, but he saved my life!"

Chronos shook his head, letting out a slightly mocking laugh.

 **"Of course he did. So let's just assume you really _did_ touch a 'blue glowing stone'... It isn't supposed to do anything, unless you explicitly wish for it. However, you said yourself that you don't even remember what you wished upon it. And it certainly doesn't land without any noise, nor does it somehow 'force' you to wish something, nor does it let you travel back in time! That's preposterous! So, who sent you and what do you want?"** He tried his best not to show the aggressiveness in his voice, but he had a hard time doing it. He carefully reached behind himself and grabbed into the darkness, pulling something closer to his prone body.

Specter's eyes switched between the two rainbowfaces in rapid succession multiple times. His heart already started beating in a higher frequency again.

"What are you talking about?! Nobody 'sent' me! Please! You have to believe me! I... I don't know how to explain it any better. All I know is that I touched a blue glowing stone, and..."

 **"Enough!"** Chronos interrupted him. **"There is only a single way to obtain a form such as yours, only one reason for presence here. I think I've heard enough..."**

Having said that, he suddenly jumped up and raised the object he had reached out for earlier. Despite his desperation, however, Specter had never dropped his guard during this conversation. He jumped up along with Chronos and raised his own weapon from behind.

Both of them were now staring at each other with murderous intent, the sharp tip of a spear touching each of their throats. Nobody moved a muscle.

That was when multiple high-pitched beeps filled the dead silent cave. It was the communicator, which Logos was holding in her hand. She was in shock at the two males suddenly willing to kill each other, so she didn't react to it just yet.

"Answer it." Specter firmly demanded. For all he knew, the black marble was nothing more than a high-tech cellphone. And he felt like it was an important call.

Logos looked at him and then at Chronos, who only shook his head twice.

"I said answer it!" Specter almost yelled in rage. He applied some more pressure on his spear, its tip now slightly denting Chronos' throat.

Logos didn't hesitate this time. She quickly put the communicator on the ground and stepped back from it.

"Don't mind us. Just act like we're not here. I'm highly interested to hear what you think is worth killing me for, when I didn't do you any harm!"

Logos wanted to talk reason into the males, but that idea got cut short at the communicator emitting a flash of light. This was not a secured uplink, so the device ignored the presence of the two other dinosaurs in the room. The holographic image of Themis could be seen hovering before her once again.

And Themis didn't waste any time getting to the point.

"Logos? I fear I have good, but also bad... and very bad news..."

"What... are the good ones?" Logos asked in leaf-eater. The communicator was obviously never calibrated for sharptooth.

"I found out that our lost asset was taken care of long ago. The military command wanted to cover it up to absolve themselves from a direct breach in security policy. It was all a misunderstanding." And just as Logos wanted to relax a little, Themis continued. "However, the bad news are that scans show there is indeed something on its way to you... The very bad news are... It's close."

Logos gulped audibly.

"How big is it? And where will it hit?"

"I can't say for certain, but the diameter seems to be around 50 meters..."

 _If what she's talking about is what I think she's talking about... That is more than enough to wipe out a major city!_ Specter quickly noted in his mind, not even really interested that he was actually looking at the hologram of a real alien.

"... but that's not even the worst part. Logos, the estimated area of impact is within 20 kilometers of your position. We can't narrow it down any further, but... it will make contact in around two hours... and it will be fiery in that valley of yours, that's for sure..."

Logos nearly fainted. There was only one place where such an object could've hit to make it 'fiery', as Themis had put it in her dark humor, and she knew they wouldn't have the time to get everyone in the Valley out of the blast radius.

"You mean... it's going to hit the big volcano?!"

"Most likely, yes."

"Isn't there anything you could do?" Logos almost begged.

"Your system is off-limits to our forces after what happened last time. Earth almost had its biosphere destroyed! I have already talked to Admiral Ares... I tried to push him to do something... but his hands are tied. Rules are rules. There is nothing we can do. We could have only ever done something if the threat was existence-threatening to the planet again... I'm so sorry, Logos... Please just get yourself to safety."

"I won't leave everyone behind." Logos answered without even thinking about it. "This is my home. I can't... I'm sorry... Farewell, Themis. Thanks for everything."

"I understand... Farewell, Logos. Take care."

Both creatures could see the respective other having tears in their eyes for a few more seconds. After that, there was darkness. The communication link was cut once again. Forever, this time.

The awful silence following that was only broken when Specter started to laugh, not out of amusement but rather disbelief.

"And you think... I'm responsible for this?! For an asteroid?! Even if that was the case, don't you think it would be a little bit stupid to come here and stay inside the area of effect?"

Chronos lowered his spear after hearing that, and so did Specter at Chronos' reaction. Both were still eyeing each other with massive distrust, but at least they didn't intend to kill each other anymore.

 **"I'm sorry... I didn't know... I thought you were..."** Chronos offered.

Specter just waved him off, raising his own voice again.

"Forget it. I don't even want to know what you thought I was. So, any idea how to prevent a shockwave and a pyroclastic flow that will scorch everything around here?" He asked in the end, quite a bit of sarcasm in his question. If he had learned one thing in his life, then it was that certain doom is best faced with a smile on one's face.

 **"I wouldn't know how..."** Logos responded in a sad tone. **"We don't have a weapon capable of destroying the object anymore, and evacuating the valley would accomplish nothing. There is too little time..."**

Specter's mind was on overdrive but he couldn't think of anything himself. That was when his eyes caught onto the black marble, still resting on the ground.

"What... about that thing?"

 **"That's a communicator. It's not a weapon."** Chronos made clear.

"Yeah I can see that... But... it's still somewhat a cellphone, isn't it?"

 **"A 'cellphone'? Not even our ancestors used..."** The slap from Logos' tail made Chronos shut up again and adjust his sentence. **"How do you know about that?"**

Specter let out an annoyed sigh.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I don't belong... Ah, forget it! Anyway, this thing can't be running on air, now, can it?"

 **"Of course not! It's a highly sophisticated device that uses..."**

"Spare me the details, please." Specter cut him off. "So, it does have a battery. Well, you know what happens when you suddenly expose a battery to oxygen, don't you?"

The rainbowfaces' eyes widened. After all, they had used the exact same method on their Repressor to blow up half of the Hidden Canyon. Only that the Repressor had lost most of its energy before, back then. The communicator, however, still had years' worth of energy left. The explosion would dissolve the whole volcano. Together with anyone even close to that area.

And there was another problem.

 **"Yes, but you can't remote control the explosion..."** Logos stated.

"Yeah... I've heard about your 'Pain Rock'... Anyway, we can talk about that later. Right now, we need to get there. Fast." Specter concluded.

Chronos and Logos could only nod at that. What the fastbiter proposed was a suicide mission, but they had no other choice. They just hoped their children would understand this decision in time.

* * *

As the three unusual companions were making their way up onto the huge volcano, one of them has been plagued by the same question since an hour now. The topic has put pressure on him for weeks, but that one sentence he heard coming from what he assumed was one of the rainbowfaces' friends had changed it all. He was forced to ask this one particular question, but it was not a trivial question. It was a question whose answer defined the existence of billions of lives.

With great trepidation, Specter took a few deep breaths and raised his voice.

"Earlier, when you two were talking via the communicator... What did she mean by that?"

Logos turned her head and looked up at Specter, who was walking by her side.

 **"By what?"**

"That this system is 'off-limits'... after 'what happened last time'? What about earth's biosphere?"

 **"Oh dear..."** Logos started, looking away for a second. She knew she technically wasn't allowed to tell Specter about that, but she had a feeling he deserved to know. Besides, she figured that this really didn't matter now anymore. **"See, we had a... 'superior' once... And eight years ago, he wanted to eradicate us, together with this whole planet. To put it simply, let's say it had to do with your friends making a wish on the Stone that had landed in the valley..."**

"What?! That's horrible! What kind of messed up asshole would do that?!" Specter exclaimed. "But... how exactly do you destroy a whole planet like this? I mean, in my time we had thermonuclear bombs and everything, horrible weapons of mass destruction, but nothing could have blown up a whole planet in one hit."

 **"That's not what would have happened, had he succeeded. His plan was so much simpler. He wanted to guide a so called Geocide, a huge asteroid, several kilometers in size, at earth. I've heard of something like that being used in the past... It would have destroyed not only through its force but also through the changes in climate and so on. Volcanos, earth quakes... The whole planet would have been a mess. It would have killed almost everyone alive on this planet, without leaving any evidence of an attack. It would have been a mass extinction unlike any other. Luckily, we stopped him from doing exactly that!"**

Specter stopped his movement at once and looked at the ground. Deep down inside of his mind, a thought was forming. It was more of a realization, really. And it was becoming more clearly by the second.

The rainbowfaces stopped as well to look at him in concern now.

 **"Is... something wrong?"** Chronos carefully asked.

"Mass extinction... A big asteroid... That... had to be... the... the... Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event... No... No, it can't be... This just isn't possible... Everything we knew about dinosaur extinction. How was I even alive before...?" Specter muttered to himself. He wanted to push aside these horrible thoughts but the evidence was clear to him by now. He started to shake.

 **Screech!**

His ear-piercing shriek cut through the air like a razor-sharp claw, louder and more violent than any outburst he might have had earlier.

The cry he let out into the sky made Chronos and Logos flinch. Never before have they heard a predator mourn like this. It was a horrible sound and ironically so heartbreaking at the same time, coming from a being that was designed by nature to kill others. And Specter's cry communicated not only loss. It also communicated failure. Total failure of the only goal he had set himself. To protect the existence of mankind, and thus his very own existence. Now, it seemed like everything was lost. His sole purpose to exist had just vanished.

 _No... Not like this. Not... like this! I won't go down like that!_

His face took on a determined expression. This grim resolve, desperately trying to make himself useful, desperately begging for acknowledgement, was all that he could think of right now.

"Hand me that thing and head back. I can handle the rest..."

 **"No way! Whatever you're planning, you're not going to kill yourself!"** Logos spoke with a lot of commitment in her own voice. She would not let the fastbiter sacrifice himself in the very same fashion Mr. Thicknose had done all these years back.

"I will never see my kind again. Neither my parents... nor my friends. I will never experience love... I will never hear the sound of music again... I am already dead... Everyone I used to know is dead..."

 **"What are you talking about?! Yes, maybe you're stuck here. And yes, maybe you will never see your loved ones again... But you're still young. It's not too late to start over. Chronos and I did it as well, so why can't you?"**

"Spare me the consolation. I'm all alone here! Nobody here is even remotely like me! And if what you said is true, if there really are no 'Stones' anymore, then you were right. I didn't want to wish anything! It just happened! So it really is obvious that I was sent here... Look at me! I'm a walking weapon! And someone is playing his dirty little game with me, which I refuse to play any longer!"

Logos was out of words, so it was up to Chronos to speak.

 **"Nobody can ask this of you..."**

"And nobody can deny me this either. Please, just let me do this. Let me just go..."

Chronos just nodded and gestured for Logos to hand Specter the communicator. Hesitantly, she opened her hand and reached the fastbiter the device. The last link to her own past. With the communicator gone, something died inside her as well.

Specter looked down at his claws. The black marble in one hand and his spear in the other. He grasped both objects firmly as he looked up again.

"Thanks. Now go."

The rainbowfaces both bowed their heads deeply in utmost respect before turning around and charging back down the path.

Specter smiled for a few seconds but his face soon took on a grave expression. He turned around as well and sprinted the rocky path upwards to the top of the gargantuan volcano. He didn't even feel the rising heat under his feet anymore. Right now, he felt nothing. He was an empty shell. A shadow. A ghost. A specter.

 _How fitting..._

It was quite ironic that he took the tiniest bits of satisfaction in these last moments of his life, but he didn't pay that too much heed.

After a few more minutes, he finally arrived at the top of the volcano. 'Smoking Mountain', as everyone called it. It was the biggest around and ironically the closest to the Great Valley. From up there, Specter could oversee the majestic nighttime landscape down below. Would the situation not have been so dire, he might have admired the sight from on top of this sleeping giant, watching over the valley. So calm, so peaceful, and yet so terrifying nonetheless.

Specter, however, didn't care anymore. Right now, all his mind could come up with was brutal efficiency. He sat down and laid both objects in his hands on the ground in front of him. His spear still had a few pieces of burnt vines on it, he had used earlier to attach the heated stone to. They would serve him well for this final purpose, he deduced.

Having attached the black marble to his spear now, he took one final look at the stars. The sight was beyond beautiful. In his time, all the light emitted from the big cities had shrouded the sky at night. Never had he seen the pure night sky before in his life, not even in the past three weeks he had spent in this time. There had been far more pressing things to attend to than gazing at the stars.

He just stood there in silence for what seemed to be like an hour, hypnotized by what was above him. After another while, he found a point of interest among the thousands of glowing dots in the sky. He took particular interest in one star. One star, shining brighter than any other.

 _North Star... Polaris...? No, you changed your position long ago... Not even you are what's left. Not even you remain... Not even you are how I remember... But whatever you are, North Star, whatever name you carry... Care to guide me one last time?_

 **Boom!**

As if the distant star, hundreds of lightyears away from him, had heard his thoughts, the distant booming sound Specter had already encountered before his change reached his ears once more. Were his emotions not in utter chaos, he would have found this amusing in the most dastardly twisted way. The same sound that had started all this would finally end his life as well.

Slowly, he rose to his feet again, calmly observing the object in the sky, embraced by blazing hot red fire, coming directly at him and closer with every second. He could almost feel his feathers catching fire, caused by the insane heat the rock was radiating even from hundreds of kilometers away. It felt like the air was being sucked out of his lungs, a thunderstorm of fire stealing his last breaths from him.

He raised his spear. Once in his life would he make everything right, having no fear, no regrets and doing no mistakes anymore. Free, at last.

 _Mother... Father... I hope you're proud of me. I've failed so often... so long I was useless... I thought I could change something and I ruined everything! Even in this time! Even here! Just like always! Wherever you are, forgive me for this... I've failed again... I've failed everyone... I just couldn't do it...  
_

* * *

"Are you sure we did the right thing? We don't even know if it will hit..."

Logos' sentence got cut short at the massive asteroid racing high above her head with an ear-shattering bluster. The two rainbowfaces were standing just outside the valley and looked in incomprehensible horror at the stone which was about to crash right into the biggest volcano in this area.

However, it would not come to that.

A blinding flash of light, so bright that it would have taken their eyesight, had they not immediately turned away from it. When they opened their eyes again, there was dead silence. At least until the shockwave reached them, together with the sound of this cataclysm. It knocked both of them clean off their feet and threw the two grown up dinosaurs around like petty leaves. The deafening bang of the antimatter explosion only added the last bit of spice to the sheer power of the destructive force which had been unleashed.

It took them a few minutes until Chronos and Logos were able to groggily rise on their feet again. Their mouths fell agape when they looked at the ground zero. The whole volcano had been sliced in half and leaked rivers of lava and superheated dust, both of which into the opposite direction of the valley. The danger had been averted.

It was over.

* * *

 **One day later:**

 _Me close now... Can't wait to see if he alright again! Specter did bring fresh wind into pack. Even Taunt will be glad to have him back!  
_

It was early in the day, the Bright Circle had yet to reach its highest point in the sky, and Petrie was more than happy to finally meet a 're-hatched' fastbiter. The rainbowfaces have always remained a mystery to him, but what he was certain of was that they knew an uncountable amount of things and always had a solution for every possible problem. Surely, they would have been able to get even someone like Specter back on the straight and narrow.

That was when he could see something in the distance. His eyes went wide in an instant.

 _Oh no! That Smoking Mountain?! What happened?!_

He quickly dived down and doubled his speed.

After a few more minutes of flight, Petrie arrived at the massive bluffs which marked the borders of the Great Valley. Still having one of his eyes rested on the completely destroyed Smoking Mountain, he wondered why nobody of the other flyers was in the air to intercept his course. He lowered his altitude once again and scanned the ground below him. Everything seemed fine with the residents, even though he carried a strange feeling in his guts by now. He tried to make out anything special, something that did not fit.

And it didn't take him much longer to find exactly that.

 _What they all doing at Fastbiter Rock? Oh! There be rainbowfaces! Surely they know._

Following that, he dived down and landed in front of both of them. They didn't even recoil from his sudden appearance. It was almost like they were expecting him, he thought to himself, but he didn't expect anything bad to have happened.

 **"Sorry me come here without telling you first. Uhm... Something wrong with Smoking Mountain?"**

"Yes... A flying rock almost caused it to destroy the valley." Chronos responded.

Petrie could only gasp after hearing that.

 **"That horrible! Someone hurt?"**

"One..."

 **"Who be it?"**

"Your packmate who came here..."

Petrie's eyes already widened again in shock at that, but Chronos' continuation made his heart break apart.

"He's dead..."

 **End of Act I**

* * *

 **And this is the end of the first act. Please do let me know if you like it or hate it!**

 **Again, I'm sorry for the delay but I somehow didn't make any good progress with my writing over the last few days and I didn't want to push myself to publish something unfinished. I hope the outcome is still acceptable. :)**

 **That being said, university has started for me again and the time I could dedicate to my writing basically will be cut in half, if not more. Having finished the first act, I would like to take a little hiatus anyway. In other words: I won't post on a regular basis anymore, maybe only once every two weeks and so on. Still, I will definitely continue this story.**

 **Act II will reveal if Specter managed to survive the seemingly impossible, or if only his actions and words live on, just like he wished upon the strange stone. In any event, with the Communicator now gone, the second act will focus solely on the events in this "primitive" time. I know, I have packed quite a lot of sci-fi into the last chapters, but I felt like it was necessary since we're talking about the rainbowfaces here. I hope you guys don't mind too much.**

 **So, as always, take care and have a nice day!**

 **Until the next time.**

 _ **Revised**_


	10. (Act II) Chapter 9: Innocence

**Act II: Light & Darkness  
**

 **Chapter 9: Innocence  
**

 ** _"This is Novigrad. Only the innocent burn here." - Joachim von Gratz, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt  
_**

 **The pack's territory:  
**

 _Ah, it's been quite some time. I hope they're still happy to see me.  
_

As the fastbiter was cautiously making his way through the thick underbrush, these very thoughts really have accompanied him for quite some time. Right now, he was just hoping that the pack would be doing as fine as ever. And how could they not? This was Seeker's pack. What could have possibly happened to them during his absence?

"We will be there soon. Looking forward to this, aren't you?"

He didn't turn around to the female behind him while giving his response.

"Of course! I'm sure they will be delighted to hear the news!"

He was very much looking forward to finally seeing some friendly faces again. Seeker's pack. The pack that has changed his life for the better. Never would he forget the kindness and understanding these new fastbiters have brought into a harsh world, where killing was just daily business for the casual sharptooth. Had fate not decided for him to be bound to them, he figured that he would have died long ago already.

He stopped for a moment to sniff the air and began to smile at his discovery.

 _Hehe... Let's see if you've learned something, Taunt._

Like shadows, the two predators moved through the bushes, eluding the few rays of light. The Bright Circle was just beginning to set, providing the perfect shading to shroud their bodies. When they finally had a visual on the orange fastbiter, they started sneaking and lowered their heads in the usual, predatory custom. The fastbiter in their sights had his back turned towards them, which would make this way too easy. Their target would not know what hit him.

He raised his forelimb and, using his three clawed fingers, began the countdown.

 _3... 2... 1..._

 **Chomp!**

"Ow! Hey! What...?!"

The sudden outburst of pain, caused by a nip on his tail, made Taunt seemingly fly forwards and spin around in the same jump. His eyes went wide when he saw who the two perpetrators were.

Two adult fastbiters. The male colored in green. The female in a light blue, and she was carrying multiple little fastbiter younglings on her back.

"Dad! Swift!"

Taunt tried to show the happiness about seeing his extended family again on his face, but a certain something prevented him from doing that with brutal effectiveness.

"You let your guard down, son. Again. Like always. Have you not learned anything from me?" Thud explained himself in a flamboyantly insulted fashion. He tried his best, but he just couldn't hide the jest in his tone. Knowing whom he was dealing with here, he was expecting his son to retort something in his usual manner.

However, Taunt's response would be a lot different. He completely ignored the banter and spoke up with a tone in his voice that was, to say the very least, highly unusual for him.

"Yeah, probably... It's nice to see you both. What brings you here?"

Thud was shocked by that shaky, almost emotionless, response. Was this really his son, Taunt, who had this name for a reason after all, standing there?

"What? Am I not allowed to visit my favorite pack of ankle-biters?" He started, still quite a bit of joy in his voice. However, he decided to adjust his tone the moment he continued. "But first... Taunt? Did something happen I should know about?"

Taunt didn't respond outright. He rather looked into the distance for a while. The news were still fresh. None of the packmembers had digested all this just yet, those heartbreaking words coming from Petrie earlier. They had certainly ruined his day. And right now, all the things which usually defined his personality to the very core were forgotten.

"There is... Our pack counts one fastbiter less as of yesterday..."

Thud was seriously taken aback by this. In the world of sharpteeth, death was something that would accompany especially fastbiters every single day, either the death of their victims or sometimes even their own, but he would never have expected someone of Seeker's pack to die all this sudden.

"Who...?" Thud started to carefully inquire, but he was cut off by his son.

"You don't know him. He came to us not even a cycle of the Night Circle ago, and Seeker took him in." He couldn't help but let out a sad laugh at this point. "He was utterly hopeless. Full-grown fastbiter, way bigger than any of us, and he didn't know how to hunt or fight... Can you believe that? Turned out he was changed, too. You know... different... from you and me. Feathers and all, like Seeker or Stern Claw have, but there was so much more to it he never talked an awful lot about. He was very reclusive in his last days here, talked even less than before. Said he didn't belong here, said he had to travel to the Great Valley and speak to the rainbowfaces to find peace... We thought he was making a fuss about nothing special, so we just tried to give him some time, but... a few days ago he went off by himself... and then died when a flying rock crashed into the Smoking Mountain next to the valley. Apparently 'gave his life to save the valley'... Or at least so the rainbowfaces claim, according to Spotter. I think for once, even they don't know for certain." He sighed loudly before finishing his speech. "I guess none of us really got to know him at all. It's just a shame... that he's gone now... I liked that big fuzzball..."

At this point, both Thud and Swift were just staring at Taunt in disbelief and horror. Thud could obviously already guess in what state the pack must have been in, he had lost a fair share of his own friends and loved ones after all, but what he planned on eventually telling them would only add insult to an already nasty emotional injury. And while he now knew that the fastbiter in question had been anything but a long-time friend to the pack, he also knew that a sudden loss like that would still leave its scars. Thinking about this topic, he remembered how shattered Littlefoot had been when he heard about Skytail's death.

Taunt used the time of his father's pondering to recompose himself.

"By the way, dad... Why are you and Swift alone with the children? What about Ripper and Torn, and their mates? They stuck with hatching eggs?"

Thud smiled sadly at Taunt's pathetic attempt to be funny in a situation such as this. With a heavy heart, he decided to get this over with.

"You could say it that way. Son? I need to talk to Seeker. Immediately."

* * *

 **The Great Valley:  
**

"Dear? We should really head back home, soon. Axiom and Datum are probably already sleeping."

Not even Chronos' calm voice could stop Logos from staring at the long since inactive Stone of Cold Fire. The Stone of Destiny. Fastbiter Rock. Silently, it stood there amidst the water-filled crater. Constantly reminding everyone that somewhere out in the Mysterious Beyond, there were seven sharpteeth on the prowl. Seven fastbiters. Seven hunters. Seven heroes. Seven friends. The very friends that used to belong to the valley, until they unwillingly sacrificed their past lives for a greater good. The defeat of Red Claw and thus the Great Valley's salvation.

But as of today, it had an additional meaning. Yet another sharptooth had cast his shadow upon the valley. However, this sharptooth, this fastbiter, had shielded the unaware inhabitants from sure death, a burning sky of fire and ashes, for reasons and means unknown. To some, a select few that got to know his name, he would be known as the eighth hunter, in spite of his hunt already being over.

"Do you really think it's over?" She responded after a while.

"I'm sure of it. And once again, it was you who prevented another disaster."

"No, this time it was neither me nor you... But that's not what I meant. I meant over for _him_."

Chronos looked at her in surprise at first, but soon resumed to wear a serious face as he went over the last night in his mind again.

"I don't see how he could have survived that. The communicator had just too much energy left... You should let it go, dear. It's best this way." He finally responded.

Logos looked at the ground for a few seconds before she turned around to her mate.

"Three weeks ago... You had the same dream, didn't you?" She asked plainly.

Chronos just gasped and stared at her, so Logos quickly continued.

"So you did... The burning sky, the ashes in the wind... and a fastbiter with black feathers, with the shadow of... something else. Just... what have we done?"

* * *

 _There he was yet again. The darkness that has accompanied him, surrounded him, mocked him, haunted him, tortured him, for all the time in his new life. After every single one of his kills, he could feel his heart darken just a little bit more. His whole viewpoint on life, on justice, on love, on happiness, had been turned on its head. Gone was the calm, gentle and empathic human that quite literally couldn't hurt a fly. Gone was the life in safety, warmth and comfort. Gone was his past._

 _But what was in that place now? He knew exactly what. A killer. A murderer. Cold, calculating and brutal._ _Always lusting and longing for fresh_ _blood, to gorge himself on the life essence of others._ _Showing mercy only on a select few for his own selfish reasons. Not only tearing apart flesh to survive, but whole families. Sometimes killing for sport, betting on and toying with the lives of others, enjoying himself even. And the worst part? He didn't care a single bit about that. Why even bother?_

 _He was dead, after all._

 _"I am, am I not?"_

 _All of this felt like an unending nightmare, albeit that he was a spectator now. An incorporeal being, hovering inside this pitch black realm with no way of escaping. He would be forced to listen into this darkness to whatever would come, unable of defending himself. This time, he truly didn't have a choice anymore._

 _"That depends. Do you actually want to be dead?"_

 _This voice. He knew it. It had appeared in all of his dreams so far, guiding him on his miserable course on which he had achieved nothing but his own demise. However, something about it was different now. It still definitely belonged to a female and it still carried kindness and understanding, and yet it somehow didn't. It sounded metallic, almost artificial, as if this voice was somehow 'produced'. It certainly didn't calm his nerves anymore. He had no way of explaining this, not even to himself._

 _"Where are you?! I've had enough of your sick games! Show yourself already!" He yelled, or rather thought, into the distance._

 _"Oh, this is anything but a game, Specter." Came the response, each word seemingly circling around him. This being, responding to him, seemed to be bodiless as well. There was no light as it spoke. Unlike the previous encounters, there was only darkness._

 _"Don't call me that! That's not my name!"_

 _"Oh? What is your name then?"_

 _That was the question, wasn't it? What was his true name? It had been long since lost on him. A name was something extremely personal, something that would be deeply imprinted in one's mind. An unbreakable bond to life, from birth to death. And yet, he didn't know it. Not anymore. This made him realize something. The moment Littlefoot had asked him for his name, and he didn't know the answer, he had been born and died his first death at the same time. It was his old self that died right there already._

 _"You took it away from me! All was fine until you sent me that damn Stone!"_

 _"An unfortunate side effect of your transformation, I agree, but for the better. I am sorry it had to be this way."_

 _"Oh really? You're sorry?" He retorted with an over-the-top sarcastic tone._

 _"Correcting mistakes of the past is always hard, and you experienced it first-hand. Especially when that mistake involves yourself."_

 _Despite his anger, he was curious now. He tried to calm down as best as he could, so as to not upset this intruder inside his mind too much, longing for answers about his very existence._

 _"What do you mean? What mistakes did I make? What did I do to deserve losing everything I ever knew?"_

 _"You misunderstand. I am not talking about your mistakes. You did nothing wrong, yet you atoned for our mistake and I am truly sorry for that. We all are."_

 _"Explain yourself already! I've had enough of this riddle-speak shit!"_

 _"Which is why I am here. We agreed to communicate with you, made an exception for once, to give you the answers you deserve. This will be the first time, and it will be the last. You will be on yourself after that."_

 _"Good gracious! How incredibly nice of you!" This mix of sarcasm and raw anger was something he wouldn't have given his worst enemies. However, he considered the mysterious being talking to him even beyond an enemy. "Now then... Just what are you?"_

 _"Something higher, long since vanished from the discernible realm of the universe. We were the first, guiding all those that would follow. We observe, suggest and calculate, yet we never intervene. We provide light on the path of uncertainty. Those who seek guidance will always look for our long since abandoned stars."_

 _He was dumbstruck by this. His mouth would have fallen wide agape, were he not bodiless._

 _"What?! You mean...? But... how does that work?"_

 _"By giving those who deserve to prosper an option to evolve. To change their destiny. To become what they want to be. A new beginning."_

 _He remembered the first dream he had after arriving in this place. Those were more or less the exact same words. Still, he was almost certain that he was being fooled by this voice. Despite nothing more than a ghost himself here, he could feel his heart telling him that._

 _"So these blasted Stones are your creation! But why? Why me? Why change me into a carnivore and force me to kill? Why not into a peaceful herbivore, or at least an omnivore? I would've liked being an Oviraptor, Troodon or Gallimimus... Why give me no choice but to live off meat? And why not someone from this time?!"_

 _"Because you experienced our very mistake. You have spent more than 20 years living it, amongst many other factors. Your heart is pure, and so is your judgement and your interesting way of irrational thinking. You were the best suited. And so is your new body. It had to be this way. Anything else would not have sufficed. Or would you rather have been the prey, instead of the predator? Would you rather haven been the hunted, instead of the hunter? Besides, is this not what you always wanted? Did you not always want to fight for your presence and hunt your own nourishment?"_

 _"How could I have known it would be this hard?! How could I have known that their screams would haunt me in my sleep?! And what 'mistake'?! You're talking about it as if it was your first and only!"_

 _"Oh, Specter. You don't even know what you want. So innocent, so naive... so typical for your former species. Indeed, it was our first and only mistake. They who arose from the ashes of a cataclysm, only to cause innumerable more. They who obstructed their own future and that of everyone else with it. They who so self-righteously called themselves 'humans' to distinguish themselves from the animals they were."_

 _Under normal circumstances, he would have attacked who or whatever had been speaking those words without hesitation, regardless of its appearance. This was just too much of an insult. Right now, however, his mind couldn't even process all this information. Only time could, he figured. So he settled with asking questions. He would have enough time for cursing in the afterlife, if there even was something like that. Who even knew? Maybe he already was in that place._

 _"You disgusting piece of shit! What gives you the right to play God with seven billion lives?!"_

 _"God? There is no such being, you know that. And I believe you also know why we had to do it. Seven billion are but a dust particle in our universe. We have studied you,_ _observed you, for millennia. War defined your whole history, nothing but mindless bloodshed over imaginary entities for centuries. Two world wars over petty grievances with the third only being a matter of time from where you came. Endless lives lost every day. Conflicts, dictators, refugees, hunger, hate, murder, racism. All of this out of fear and greed. Your kind would have destroyed a planet that has lasted for billions of years in less than only a million. This could not go on. We had to act. We had to intervene. Just this once. But we could not. We were not allowed to. However, you could. And you did."_

 _"You're telling me that... you used me?! That you killed my kind and ruined my life for a higher cause?!"_

 _"We did, yes, and at the same time we did not. There was no 'higher cause' in this, as you would call it. Only two decisions, both equally wrong in their own ways. We do not ask you to understand or accept this concept. We do not ask for your approval. We had to do it. We had to choose the harder wrong over another easier mistake, thus leaving the future open again."_

 _He hesitated to answer this time. All of this went against his better judgement and knowledge. It felt like he was talking to some deluded psychopath who desperately tried to justify his actions and murders by listing his few good deeds and intentions. Maybe he was talking to himself even? By now, he had killed enough living beings to fall under that classification._

 _"Why am I even speaking to you? You're obviously just my guilt-ridden conscience. This is just happening inside my head. No! You're not real! You're not! This is impossible!"_

 _"Just because this is happening inside your head, why does that mean it is not real? You think it is impossible because your logic is bound by the very laws your kind established. Those do not apply to us, however."_

 _"So it's supposed to be perfectly logical to change species and travel through time, is that it? Ridiculous! You can't change the past! Besides... Chronos and Logos already prevented the extinction event, long before you decided to 'intervene'. So what does all of this have to do with me? How did I even exist before?"_

 _"Ah, your 'rainbowface' friends. Yes, they have indeed followed the path we laid out for them. They only saw what we made them see. They only heard what we made them hear. They only did what we planned for them to do. Or do you believe it was mere coincidence that yet another 'rock from space' threatened their home? Do you believe it was coincidence that the only possible way to stop it was by destroying the last link to their past lives? Do you believe it was coincidence that this mysterious black marble, full of immense destructive power, was created with a microscopical defect, a crack the size of merely a few atoms, which would ensure your survival? Your wish was the penultimate piece in this puzzle, and your presence here finally completed it. To explain further, know that time is but a boundary for those afraid to act. A boundary we were not afraid to transgress. It will be up to you now what you make of this. Maybe they will rise again, reborn, cleansed. Not anytime soon, however._ _ _Unfortunately, this is all I can tell you._ You will find that there is much more danger, many more things to learn and even more hardships in this world than you allow yourself to admit."_

 _For some reason, he felt oddly exhausted by now. This conversation was far beyond anything a normal mind could have handled. He just wanted to finally have his rest, to let go of all this. To be finally free._

 _But after hearing all this, something clicked. He just couldn't hold back his sheer anger anymore. For all his life he had sworn to be a strong personality, never to serve anyone but himself. Never to be a pawn. And he succeeded. He had become a king in this evolutionary game of chess, played by beings whose power he couldn't even remotely comprehend. And yet, even a king was nothing but a pawn for the players of this game, albeit not an expendable one. They had their methods for that little problem, however. They had locked him in a long castling, checkmated him right at the start of this game with his own morals and his empathy. He had never been given even a chance to make his own move.  
_

 _"Why can't you just let me die?! Have I not suffered enough?! I never wanted this!"_

 _"Had you truly not wanted this, you would not be in this place. Had you truly wanted to die, we would not be speaking right now. When you touched our Stone, you made a wish. You wished to change the world to a better place. And thus, you wished for a new beginning, for your old species. You wished for them to be free of war, free of hardships and death. And you wished, in all your self-righteousness, for your very own legacy. We have granted your wishes. Now they are gone, now they are free. Now you are the first, and you are the last. You are the link between two worlds. Your own fate and that of many others lies in your hands now. From this point on, you decide. This is your legacy."_

 _As the voice's echo proceeded to vanish into the distance, he desperately wanted to ask one final question. All these things he had just been told were perfectly logical in some perversely twisted way, but there was one thing he just could not explain._

 _"Wait! They... will 'rise again'? What does that mean? And you said this was the first time we would be talking... But what about before? I know your voice from somewhere!"_

 _His question was only retorted with a calm, soothing laughter. Several moments passed before he was able to make out that mysterious being speaking up one last time from seemingly far, far away, almost like a whisper.  
_

 _"_ _Fare thee well, Specter. You served us well. Be free now._ _ _Your journey has only begun._ "_

 _And then there was silence._

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

"Thud! Swift! It's nice to see you again! How are you doing?" Littlefoot exclaimed as soon as he laid eyes onto the visitors.

The pack and their children all gathered up behind him first. Taunt as well was quick to break away from his father and join them in that show of respect for Littlefoot's leadership. The leader would always have the first word with any potential newcomers or visitors, everyone was instinctually aware of this, even the children. However, Littlefoot was just as quick to gesture for his pack to loosen up. He really wasn't in the mood for any of this today.

Thud stepped forward and bowed his head respectfully before speaking up.

"It's nice to see you, too. You must apologize that we didn't bring a peace offering."

Littlefoot mustered Thud and Swift for a while, searching for any possible hint that could have given away the reason for their sudden arrival, but their scents seemed rather normal, although he did notice slight notes of concern in them.

He just wanted to speak up himself when Thud took the word again.

"Seeker... I must have a word with you. In private."

The tone in Thud's voice, and the simple fact that two-thirds of his pack were missing, only implied one thing for now. A serious amount of trouble. But why wouldn't Thud want to speak about it openly, Littlefoot asked himself. Thinking about this only gave himself even more concerns, so he offered Thud a firm nod and followed him away from the rest.

When the two of them reached a safe distance to the others, Thud stopped his movement and turned around to Littlefoot. It was the brown fastbiter who took the initiative this time.

"Alright, now can you tell me what's going on? Where are the others?"

Thud took a deep breath.

"My son told me what happened. So, about that fastbiter that belonged to your pack..."

"He's dead, Thud." Littlefoot cut him off, looking at the ground in front of his feet. "I failed him... I still don't understand how this could've possibly happened, but it did. This is my fault."

Though he wanted to disagree on that, Thud kept his quiet as he was still searching for the right words. Despite his longstanding experience, situations like these had been extremely rare in his life. Comforting others was not exactly his best trait, and the news he had about that lost fastbiter of Littlefoot's pack were anything but comforting.

"It's much worse than that." He said, and Littlefoot instantly looked back up at him in massive shock. Thud himself couldn't even comprehend all this just yet. The moment he had heard from Taunt about the fastbiter in question, everything he thought to know about the situation was twisted around. He had to make sure now. "Could you... describe him? What did he look like?"

"Uhm... I don't exactly see why that would matter now, but... alright. Well, he looked a lot like me, only that he was quite a bit bigger and his feathers were mostly black." He had to chuckle slightly, thinking about Specter's appearance. "To be honest, he must have looked pretty scary to anyone who didn't get to know him."

"And how well _did_ you get to know him?" Thud questioned, by now with an angry undertone in his voice.

This question, in combination with that quite easily discernible hint of anger, made Littlefoot's stomach turn. Something was seriously wrong here.

"Well enough to have trusted him with my life. Could you get to the point, please? You're starting to creep me out."

Thud let out a loud sigh before telling the tale from its beginning.

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry. So... Ripper, Torn and their mates are having their clutch of eggs to care for right now, and I think you know what that means. In the meantime, Swift and I just wanted to pay you a friendly visit. Our little ones are learning their first words and we thought it would be nice for them to play with some other children."

"Why, that's fantastic! You're always welcome here, you know that! But... there is something on your mind, isn't there?"

"Thank you, it really means a lot to me." Thud started while bowing his head again.

Following that, he looked at all the other sharpteeth in the distance and just had to smile, seeing how his own little fastbiter children were curiously sniffing and growling at the other, noticeably bigger fuzzballs of Littlefoot's pack. It seemed like even though they were developing extremely fast in intelligence, they couldn't comprehend yet why the pack's children all had feathers and they did not, he noted to himself. It was such a peaceful and happy sight that he wished it would always be this way, but he just as well knew that would never be the case.

He switched his attention back to Littlefoot and continued.

"I fear there is. I'm not sure if it's just coincidence or if your lost 'friend'..." He cut himself off shortly, letting out a contemplative sigh. "Look, songs and stories travel quickly and far. As of the day before yesterday, a new song is being sung by a small, young pack of fastbiters from the Far Lands, one that I have heard for the first time. A horrible one in terms of content. They sang about a sharptooth, but not just any sharptooth. It's supposed to be a sharptooth that's half fastbiter, half two-footer... and covered with 'dark fuzz'... A fake-face like none other. And he kills not always for food. Sometimes, he kills even other sharpteeth without reason, without mercy, without a moment's hesitation. Just for the fun of it."

At this point, Littlefoot was staring at Thud with wide eyes as he tried to connect what he had just heard with what happened over the past weeks. All of this sounded a lot like a description of Specter. If that horrible song really was about him, then a lot of things made somewhat sense now. The way he had been so reclusive towards his last days, so determined and relentless. The way he had been so incredibly quick to learn new things, being able to effectively use his sense of smell and grasp the basics of a whole new language in a matter of days. It had always felt like he was holding back, waiting for the moment where he would be forced to show his vast abilities.

But if that really would have been the case, if Specter really was the sharptooth from this song, how could he have known all those other things? His past kind was supposed to be so unlike any dinosaur that it just couldn't have been a lie. Not even the biggest maniac on this earth would have been able to just 'imagine' that. Even with that special 'trick' of his, there was just no way he could have been that much of a fake-face.

Thud immediately noticed the mental struggle Littlefoot was having in that instance, and thus decided to drop this topic.

"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm sure it's just an exaggerated story made to scare little ankle-biters in their home lands. You don't need to hear that on a day such as this... and neither would I want to spit on your friend's memory. Let's go back to the others, shall we?"

Littlefoot only answered with a hesitant nod and took point again. He decided to keep this conversation a secret for now, as he really needed some more time to think all this through. If there was only the slightest of chances that Specter was still alive, he was obviously very happy, but expected to hear something more specific. A vague song was just not enough evidence for him, but the overlaps were indeed remarkable. Still, it would be just too absurd. And besides, although it pained him to think about it this way, it didn't even really matter anymore.

Dead or alive, though most likely dead, the black fastbiter was far away now.

* * *

"Ugh... Where am I?"

Cold, silent darkness all around him. Didn't he just wake up? Or was this how hell felt like? Lifeless and empty.

He could hear his own heartbeat, which simply implied that it must have been the first option. He blinked a few times, letting his eyes slowly adapt to the darkness in his search for some light. It didn't take him long to find it.

Almost imperceptible, a few thin rays of red sunlight penetrated the ceiling of his supposed grave.

 _Sunset? What...? How long was I out cold?!_

He couldn't remember all too much of his last actions just yet. There were really only two particular images he could recall in his mind, a blinding flash of light, followed by the sound of a deafening explosion. And then a massive landslide. How he got here, he had no memory of. He knew one thing for certain, however.

He was alive.

It was beyond a miracle that his shelter of rocks had shielded him from any possible harm that could have potentially descended upon him. Still, after a few deep breaths, he noticed that the air was starting to get thin.

 _About time I got out of here... Let's see..._

He slowly stood up and...

 **Bump.**

"Ow! Fuck's sake!"

...promptly hit his head on the rocks above him. It seemed like this shelter was a little bit smaller than he had expected it to be. A lot more careful now, and almost crouching, he swept the walls to his sides for any possible exit.

That was when he touched a rock to his right, which instantly fell out of the wall.

 _Hmm... This must be where the exit is. Ok, let's try this...  
_

He made up his mind. He took one last, deep breath and leaned over to his left side to gain the required momentum.

 **Crash!**

The sunset light that so warmly greeted him almost blinded him just as equally. His widely dilated pupils needed some time to contract again. Normally, he would have been in utmost joy that he was slowly regaining his precious eyesight. He was so much looking forward to seeing a nice, peaceful environment again. However, his mouth fell wide agape when he saw what was in front of him. He was standing at the foot of the massive volcano, but still had complete overview of the scenery.

Because there was none left. Everything around was covered in a thick fog of dust, but he could still make out his closer surroundings. Every single form of life, whether it had been plant or dinosaur, had been either scorched to a pile of ash or was now lying beneath a thick layer of said substance. The evidence that a select few had been granted a quick, mostly painless death were their bare skeletons. These poor souls had not even known what hit them. In the whole vicinity, the bony remains of spiketails, longnecks and threehorns paved the ground. Some of them big, some others quite small. It seemed like some herds had been about to pass through this area, and the way their bones were distributed only suggested that they had one particular destination in mind. The Great Valley. But those of which nothing but their bones were left were the lucky minority. Many others in the distance had either slowly suffocated or were burned to a crisp while still alive.

 _I... Did I... do this...? No... What have I done?!_

He grasped onto his muzzle with both of his hands, shaking his head in disbelief. It was only now that he fully understood what sort of havoc the communicator's 'battery' had wreaked. Maybe he had saved the Great Valley with his actions, but the price was definitely too high. He did not know exactly how many dinosaurs lived in the valley, but he could guess just by looking at the aftermath that at least twice as many must have died out here because of the pyroclastic flow he had unleashed. He had yet to discover that this sight of death and destruction was the least of his problems.

Because now the scents reached his nose. Hundreds of different scents of burnt flesh. Thousands of scents of death. Like concentrated acid, those scents corroded through his mucosae and seemed to melt his brain. His head suddenly felt like it was going to explode any second. His body did not know how to handle such an onslaught, so it reacted in the only way it felt would be best to react.

It forced him to bend down his head and disgorge the little sustenance he had left in his stomach.

When he finally started to regain control over his body again, everything that could have served as the tiniest bit of nutrition for the next few hours lay in front of his feet. A stinking pulp of mucus, bones and half-digested fish. It was not even a metaphor when he thought to himself that he truly felt empty now.

And on top of all the physical pain he had to endure, there was another thing on his mind by now. How would he return to his pack? His self-imposed mission was over. It had been a complete failure from the start. His good intentions in combination with his fateful wish had seen to that. Mankind was dead, would probably never exist. And if it still eventually would, then even his thousandth generation of children would never live to see it. What else was left for him now than to live a normal life, the life of a sharptooth?

This question would have to wait, however, as his primal instincts kicked in. In full force, this time. _Hunger! Hunt! Kill! Eat!_

Not even thinking about how to proceed now, he started sniffing the air profoundly. Within mere seconds, his olfactory center filtered the uncountable amount of disgusting smells for any useful scents. And then it finally found one. In an instant, everything inside his head went silent. His eyes widened.

 _No! No, I won't do this! Anything but that! There must be some usable carrion or at least a few berries around here!_ He screamed internally at his instincts.

But they were not about to let him win. Not again. _No! Meat! Fresh meat! Young flesh! Stegosaurus. Not far away. Easy prey! Hunt! Kill! Now!_

He tried to fight against this primal voice, tried to push it aside like he had always done before. It was no use. His hunger was just too big. For the first time, he had lost a fight against himself. He would be about to snuff out the life of another living being, one that he had sworn since day one never to lay a claw on. His transformation into a full-fledged predator would soon be complete. Only this one little step he would have to take. It was by far the hardest to him, because it was no less than the last bit of innocence he still had. But he was given no choice.

His heartbeat accelerated. He could feel the arteries pulsating beneath the skin on his powerful legs. His pupils changed sizes several times, almost filling out his whole irises in the end, as the pure adrenaline mixed with his blood and rushed to his head.

He swung his head around and locked on to his target in the distance. He could not see it, but he didn't have to. He could smell it, and that was more than enough.

Not wasting any more time, he exploded into a sprint, bursting with all his power into the distance, almost cracking the dry, ashen ground below his feet open with his sheer force.

Little did he know he had been observed from a safe distance by five watchful eyes.

* * *

"Well, well. Looks like he's found himself some food."

"Huh? How do you know? I don't smell anything in this stench!"

"Still questioning the nose of a two-footer? A shame you don't take after your sister. Now get going, both of you. Whatever he is, he might prove to be an invaluable asset out here. You know what to do."

The fastbiter duo gave their leader a nod and sprinted after the mysterious black sharptooth. Only now, the two-footer rose to his full height from behind a pile of rocks and stared into the distance, his still functioning left eye following the fastbiters until they disappeared in the fog.

* * *

 **And there we go! This is the first chapter of the second act. I originally planned to make it a little longer but in the end, I've decided to keep it like it is now. It is a bit shorter than most of the other chapters, but I think that's fine, considering that the first chapter of each act should be more of an introduction to what might follow.  
**

 **Now, I would like to use this opportunity to thank everyone that has supported me over the course of this story. I think I have improved a lot in terms of writing, and I hope this is noticeable. I also hope you guys like this new, more detailed way. I will have to see if I will be able to keep it up all through the end, but right now it's looking good.**

 **So, take care everyone and have a nice day!**

 **Until next time!**

 _ **Revised**_


	11. Chapter 10: The Forgotten

**Chapter 10: The Forgotten**

 _ **"Only the forgotten are truly dead." - Tess Gerritsen  
**_

The wind howling past his ears. The ash below his clawed feet violently spreading into all directions. His lungs burning like fire. His heart beating like a drum, a fast but also horrifyingly calm rhythm that sent out chilly vibes throughout his whole body.

As he was steadily closing in on his prey, these perceptions only added to his ecstasy. The pure ecstasy of a hunt. Primitive, wild, violent and unforgiving, such as nature demanded. He wouldn't need any cunning thoughts. He wouldn't need any real intelligence. For this particular hunt, he would only need to listen to his instincts. It was his first solo hunt, but it also wasn't even a true hunt. It was more of an execution. And just like an executioner, he would only need to be one thing. Merciless.

It might have seemed easy enough to be exactly that. From the outside, this was certainly what he must have looked like. How else would a Utahraptor of his size, almost reaching three meters height, survive in this world? But what about his inside? As with most critical decisions in life, they only seem easy when thought about in theory. When faced in reality, however, only then would one feel the true magnitude of the consequences. He has seen both sides. He has lived the predator's life, and he had sort of lived the prey's life for two days.

And it wasn't like he had not been given a chance. Thing was, he had already squandered it days ago. It had been his decision to only eat fish before and while staying in the Great Valley. It had been his decision to not hunt for bigger prey just outside of that safe haven. If only he had hunted himself a tasty longneck and eaten his fill a day ago, then maybe, just maybe, he might have still had some food in his stomach at this point, he deduced. Then again, the valley residents would have either killed him or never let him back in again. So what would have been better in the end? What would have been the right choice? Some food to go by, or knowledge?

Knowledge meant one's downfall. Those were his own words, or thoughts. However, not meeting Chronos and Logos would have indirectly meant that he would never have 'died' and thus he would never have acquired the precious knowledge he could call his now. The asteroid would have hit the volcano and it would have scorched the rainbowfaces together with the whole valley, and his mission would never have ended. He would have lived a life in uncertainty, only guessing what his true purpose was. At least now he knew that his old life was definitely over and he could safely start a new life.

A new life as Specter, the fastbiter.

But this was something that would lie in the future, something that did not concern him just yet. For now, he had to act without thinking too much. For once, he had to purely care about himself. He had to face the consequences of his decision.

 _Not much further now. Maybe another 500 meters._

Although he was fully in control of his mind again, his thoughts were as calm as the environment. The thick cloak of fog all around had yet to settle, even almost a whole day after the volcano's eruption, and it made Specter's surroundings seem like one giant ghost world. No signs of life could be seen. And even if there were any, he would have probably dismissed them.

To him, there was only the one single scent he was following. There was only his hunger and the spiketail. He slowly started coming to peace with his instinctual drives.

 _400 meters..._

With every second passed, he was rapidly getting closer. He just wanted to get this over with. There was no point in feeling bad. Even for an irrational thinker like him, it would have been outright stupid to let such an opportunity pass. Especially when his own life was at stake. Not only was he alone again, but it was also highly likely that there wasn't much more food in this barren wasteland. Even to delay the inevitable would have been the wrong decision.

 _300 meters..._

Funnily enough to him, even at a time like this, he was very happy to have lived a human life before and sincerely missed it in some way, but at the same time he was not sad that it was over. Not at all. To be able to use precise measurements, understand the stars above and the earth below him, grasp the concepts of distance and time, create images, listen to the sound of music or even make his own. Such had been, still were to the most extent, the beautiful aspects of his past life.

 _200 meters..._

And yet, the voice from his dream was right, he knew that. It had indeed been his wish for mankind to go back to simpler terms, though he would have probably thought of a different wording if he had known that the Stone would interpret it like it had. He asked himself if that would have been even possible, given that his 'heart' had supposedly uttered that wish. In any event, the way he saw it, humans had not been ready for their highly advanced lives. Humans, like every living being, needed fear. It was necessary. It made them aware that there had been far bigger foes to fight than different opinions or who the better imaginary sky-patriarch was. All the books, games and movies about monsters, ironically those being dinosaurs very often, and aliens Specter had seen, played or read in his past life were a testament to that. Without any natural enemies in the world, the only thing they had been able to do was to fear and hate each other. And what this had meant for them, well, one would only have to look at the 100 years prior to the time where Specter had come from to understand that.

 _100 meters..._

It was at this point where he promptly decided that he would maybe like this new life more than his old life, regardless of the hardships and severity of decisions it had brought with it. Because in some way, it was a simple life. A life in which he could allow himself to not care about his looks anymore, where he could afford to live like nature had planned for him to do. A life in which a species was completely equal amongst their own kind. Fastbiters were fastbiters, two-footers were two-footers, longnecks were longnecks, and so on. The diversity of a human's appearance was gone, his light complexion, tattoos, simple hairstyle and lean body shape along with it. For a creature of this primitive time, only skills and knowledge determined its success. The individualism of each creature was determined by nature, and only by nature. But he was fine with that. Because it was a life in which all the things he learned were actually applicable on a daily basis and where he could be happy about even the smallest things, like waking up on each morning in the sun's warm embrace.

And if there was even a tiny part of a human inside of him still alive by now, then this would not come as too much of a surprise. Because if humans had anything to go for them, it was their immense adaptability. Their will to survive at any cost. Whatever catastrophe descended upon them, they just would not lie down and die. They just would not give up. Never.

Neither would he.

However, the philosophical cogitations abruptly came to a stop, along with himself. He sniffed the air to narrow down the source of the scent even further.

 _50 meters. Straight ahead.  
_

He resumed his movement, this time in a slow trot. Checking his surroundings again, he noticed that there were only three corpses visible right in front of him and the fog was less dense in this area. It seemed like this area was close to the last line, the border to which the cataclysm had reached out. Something about those dead bodies felt strange though.

 _Three Stegos. Skin all cracked up... Likely died of heat... The two bigger ones must've been the parents, the slightly smaller one must've been their child. Hmm... I wonder if...? No, can't eat their meat. Way too risky. But they... formed some sort of barrier... which means..._

And then a sound filled his sensitive ears. Muffled whimpering. His nose and instincts had given him the right lead. Obstructed by the big spiketail bodies was another member of that family.

He lowered his head and circled around the dead leaf-eaters. Like the Grim Reaper himself, calculating, silent and deadly. He would be the one who made sure that the family's efforts in saving their last offspring would be in vain. As soon as he arrived on the backside, he fixated his eyes on something.

There it was. His target. A young spiketail, maybe just in its teen years by the standards of this time, not even half of Specter's size, its head buried in one of the charred adults' bodies and still emitting heartbreaking sounds of mourning. The spiketail had already developed a portion of the distinctive plates along its back and the dangerous spikes at its tail, but it was still nowhere near capable of dealing any fatal damage with those sparse weapons.

Specter felt sick at what he planned to do.

To kill a child. To kill a being that had no real way of defending itself. To be the ultimate bully, taking away the life of someone way younger, weaker and smaller, just for his own life to continue a little further. And then it would happen all over again. Although he might have a choice next time, which was a prospect that could not comfort him at all right now.

Still, he was determined to do that. He was determined to kill that orphan. Other sharpteeth had no problems with killing younglings, so why should he? Why should he always keep on living at such a serious disadvantage?

He moved in on his prey again, almost intuitively reaching for his trusty spear at his flank. But of course, it wasn't there anymore. It frightened him how much he'd gotten used to that deadly tool, and how little problems he had killing stuff with it. For this kill, however, he would have to rely on his own claws again. Maybe it was for the better, he thought to himself. He knew that the bigger the distance between the killer and his victim was, the smaller the obstacle for him to overcome and make the kill would be. Ranged weapons made killing easy, which he absolutely didn't want.

So instead, he readied his two sickle claws for a swift and deadly piercing or slashing strike. He would make this death at least a very quick one.

It was only now that the teen spiketail realized what had snuck up on him. The soft thuds of fastbiter footsteps were something very distinctive and foreboding, his parents had told him that often enough. To always be vigilant whenever he had seen or heard one. But to get the full, horrifying confirmation, he needed to turn around, which he now slowly did. His heart sank even deeper when he saw what stood in front of him. A sharptooth that looked an awful lot like a fastbiter, only that it was way too big for its kind, almost like a mix out of a fastbiter and a two-footer, and some strange black fuzz covered its entire body, emitting noticeable amounts of deep sorrow through its piercing yellow eyes. This was such an unusual sight that he could not mount an instinctual reaction. He tried to run away, tried to scream for help, but his body would not obey him. He was completely petrified, shaking with fear and horror. And even if he had managed to run, the bodies of his very parents and sister would have blocked his only path of escape. Even if he had managed to scream, nobody would have come to his aid. It was indeed the mocking irony of fate.

 **"I'm so sorry, little one... Please don't hate me for this..."**

The spiketail had just enough time to widen its eyes even further at Specter speaking leaf-eater all of a sudden. Little else conversation should follow, however, as he pounced on his prey, balanced on his left foot and kicked at its throat with his right. The sound of piercing flesh only confirmed the deadly connection of his killing claw. Following that, he simply shifted his whole weight to his front and sliced his target's neck wide open. This attack lasted exactly three seconds, but to Specter it felt like a whole year had passed. With every single drop of blood emerging from his victim, he wished that it would finally be over. He didn't even dare to look down until he would be completely sure. But there was nothing to wait for. He could only hear one heartbeat. His own.

Only now, he took a deep breath and eyed the corpse in front of his blood-smeared feet.

He wanted to feel shocked at how graciously a primitive, vastly oversized, one-ton land-bird like him could kill his victims in the blink of an eye, but he felt oddly satisfied and happy instead. In the past weeks, he had either killed in a rather clumsy but nonetheless brutal fashion, or merely dealt the finishing blows. His pack was big enough, so he had never been forced to take lives on a daily basis and thus never really thought too much about refining his technique, after all. But this right here was something different. To him, this kill required the precision of a surgeon to be as quick and painless for the spiketail as possible, which it then apparently was in the end. Also, and finally after such a long time, he was allowed to feast on some real meat again. Part of him was very much looking forward to tasting the flesh of a spiketail for the first time, too.

He wasted no time digging into his kill and ripping big chucks out of the body, swallowing them whole. It was a bittersweet taste that greeted his senses, but nevertheless so incredibly delicious at the same time, even though spiketail meat was widely known to taste underwhelming at best. At least that was what Littlefoot and the others had told him. He could understand now why most predators preferred to hunt for young prey, apart of course from the simple fact that it was way easier to kill for most of the time, yet he immediately swore to himself to never do it again unless he would be absolutely forced to, like he had been today. Then again, how long would that oath last? Had he not already sworn to himself never to kill a child, only weeks ago? Was his stance not that he would always keep his promises?

But for now, and piece by piece, he ripped the spiketail apart, growling softly in utmost satisfaction.

After a few more minutes of constant eating, he finally had at least his partial fill for the moment, raised his head again and looked around. A strange feeling came over him. He had seldom felt so good and yet so lost and depressed concurrently. The 'hunt' was over, his hunger allayed, so how would he proceed now? How would he return to his pack? Now was the time to consider where to go from this point onwards.

Little could he have anticipated that this would not be his decision.

* * *

"Did he just... speak to his food?"

A slight chuckle left the male fastbiter's mouth before he answered to the female's oblivious question.

"Please, sis. Do you honestly believe sap-suckers could talk? You know how stupid they are... He's probably somehow intimidated the spiketail so it wouldn't run away. Impressive move. Come on, now's our chance."

"Are you sure we should just go in like that? We don't even know what he is. Look at him! He might be one of _them_!"

"I don't know exactly what this guy is either, but we have to at least try. Our orders are clear. Let me do the talking. You just make sure to stay behind me."

* * *

 _Hmm... Getting too dark... Can't even clearly see the sun around here... Argh! It's no use! I have to find a safe place to sleep for now. Maybe tomorrow I can..._

Specter's thoughts got abruptly interrupted, as his ears picked up the sound of soft footsteps behind him. Only now, the two scents which belonged to them reached his nose.

 _Pair of raptors... Terrific. I should really check my surroundings more often. I was standing upwind from them until now... Wonder for how long they've watched me...  
_

"Greetings, stranger!"

He immediately raised his claws and tail again, and slowly turned around. He laid eyes on a male, dark blue fastbiter, just about an adult maybe, with almost imperceptible black stripes across his back, who presented quite a self-confident stance. That was not what Specter was interested in, however. This fastbiter had almost his entire left forelimb missing, and some nasty scars across his face.

He just wanted to ask for his companion when the other fastbiter moved into his vision from behind the blue one.

A female, actually noticeably bigger than the male now that she was standing at her full height, her skin completely white, the irises of her eyes colored in a very bright blue with red pupils and bloodshot sclerae. She seemed to be younger than the male, but that was something Specter had no time to realize as he instantly moved a few steps back, his stance becoming even more aggressive at her sight.

It was the instinctual voice from deep inside that had told him to do so.

 _Why am I...? Wait... She's an albino, that's why... Ah, goddamn instincts!_

The female immediately noticed his behavior, flinched shortly and pulled back behind the male again. Specter felt disgusted with himself that he acted like this just because of her unusual appearance, but an apology was out of the question right now.

"What do you want?" He finally asked the male.

This question inadvertently came out with quite an aggressive tone, but the blue fastbiter didn't let that intimidate him.

"Oh, forgive me! Where are my manners?" He started, bowing his head shortly and letting out a series of friendly growls before continuing. "My name is Shade, and this..." He gestured at the female behind him. "...is my sister Alba."

"Specter." Specter introduced himself plainly, and instead of the customary fastbiter greeting he only offered Shade a short nod. "You didn't answer my question. What do you want?"

He noticed Shade's growing nervousness in his eyes, scents and heartbeat. The blue fastbiter's confidence seemed to crumble at the presence of a much bigger predator, of which he had yet to discover that it was one of his own kind. It was almost like these two fastbiters were afraid of him, Specter thought to himself.

"Well... We couldn't help but feel curious. We have never seen a sharptooth like you."

"I'm a raptor, too, if that's what you mean." The asking looks of Shade and Alba forced him, like so often before in his conversations in this time, to simplify his sentence. "A fastbiter..."

The other two emitted audible signs of relief, although they kept at a safe distance and remained close to each other.

"Why, splendid!" Shade exclaimed. "So... since you seem to be alone out here, we would like to offer you to join our pack."

Specter tilted his head slightly after hearing this. For some reason, he already had a hunch that Shade wasn't telling the whole story. In any event, he and his sister were anything but a normal, functioning pack, even in Specter's inexperienced eyes. There just had to be more of them to ensure their daily survival. An albino and an invalid? Not exactly the definition of a strong pack. Maybe it was just his slight paranoia, but he still wanted to be extremely careful with them.

"Not interested. I already belong to a pack."

Shade's eyes widened for just a moment as he and Alba gave each other a series of worried looks. When he turned his attention back to Specter, nothing of that could be seen anymore.

"I understand... Well, let us at least help you out for now then. You're obviously new around here, and..."

"And I don't plan to stay here, thank you very much." Specter interrupted him. He was getting quite annoyed with this blue fastbiter, who seemed to obtrude himself upon him for unknown reasons.

In the meantime, Shade was still searching for the right method to persuade the black fastbiter. Specter's marginally scratchy voice gave him an idea.

"Well, I shan't force you. However, we know these lands inside out. Every cave, every ground fuzzy nest, every flattooth nesting site, every watering hole..." He noticed the slightest bit of movement on Specter's stern face, so he knew now that he had found his 'method'. He turned his head slightly away from the black fastbiter to underline his statement even further. "But if you're not interested..."

Specter frowned at that. If he hated one thing even more than being made a fool of, it was being forced to do something. Just when he thought he was done playing the puppet for some elusive aliens, this fastbiter showed up. And what Shade was doing right now was using a very nasty form of extortion. Specter had to admit though, he was in serious need of some fresh water. Especially after his latest sprint through this horrible dust all around. And also, he needed help. Him playing the solitary hunter would only result in his death.

So with great trepidation, he made up his mind and decided to show these two the sleeping alpha raptor inside him. In a world where the size of one's body and claws was everything, why not use that for his own good? He didn't exactly plan to tell them that he had yet to fight another sharptooth claw-to-claw, and that they could probably easily kill him if they were only halfway capable. As long as they didn't know that and thought of him as a giant killer, however, he would be pretty much invulnerable. So for once, he was looking forward to being an asshole. If it would keep him alive, he would gladly be one any day, he thought to himself.

"Fine... I'll join you. But if you shit me, I'll rip your throats out and stuff 'em with your guts." He finally concluded in a cold voice.

The smaller fastbiters only responded with nervous gulps and firm nods.

 _Whatever Chaser has planned for him, I damn hope it's worth this trouble!_ Shade thought to himself, as he gestured for his sister and Specter to follow him.

* * *

The three fastbiters had traveled for almost an hour in a speedy fashion until they finally got out of the wasteland. Nobody had spoken a single word on this trip, even though Specter's mood was slowly lifting at the sight of plants and wildlife around him again. It certainly looked like he had vastly underestimated the power of that volcano. The area of effect must have extended more than 30 kilometers southeastwards.

It didn't take them much longer to reach the promised watering hole, and he wasted no time submerging his head into the cool liquid, drinking his fill and washing off the dried blood that had tainted a few of his feathers.

When he had attended to all of his needs, he gave Shade and Alba a friendly nod and raised his now much clearer voice again.

"Thanks. I appreciate it. So, what now?"

Shade took a quick look at the rising Night Circle and exchanged a few words with his sister before responding.

"Our leader would like to meet you. But first... I think it's time for you to prove your worth."

Specter let out sigh at that. He had been able to dodge that burden with Littlefoot's pack, but these fastbiters here owed him nothing. Matter of fact, _he_ owed _them_. It looked like it was finally time for his first challenge, to prove that he would be a worthy addition to their pack and to repay a debt. He could already guess what would be coming.

"Alright, what do you want killed? A longneck? A threehorn? Just show me where..."

"That won't be necessary." Shade interrupted him. "We already have... other plans for our dinner, thanks to Chaser. No, what he wants you to do is steal some eggs from a nearby nesting site."

Specter's eyes widened for just a moment. This task was certainly easier for his personality to handle than killing living children, but it was also in some way even worse than that. Now he was supposed to help in killing unborn children, stealing a poor family's beloved eggs. Then again, eggs didn't exactly feel pain or anything, so he was at least partially fine with it. Still, it was at the very least a highly unusual challenge. Normally, those were supposed to show a sharptooth's bravery and strength. But not this one, it seemed. And besides, if they already had 'other plans' to get a meal, why would they want him to steal eggs now?

Shade noticed his surprise, so he elaborated.

"You see, we call ourselves 'The Forgotten', and that for a reason. Our pack consists of only three sharpteeth, and fate has bound us together many cold times ago. We all are not supposed to be still alive anymore, but we are. What I'm trying to say is... You need to be clever to survive. I don't know what you're used to from your homelands, but raw strength means nothing out here. You will see why, soon enough."

Specter was intrigued now, and actually very happy to hear that. This strange pack was slowly growing on him. Doing things the clever way was in his element by past and present nature, after all.

"I understand. Ok, so where is the nest you want eggs from?"

Shade smirked at him.

"That's up to you to find out. Good luck!"

"What?!"

Specter didn't get a response anymore, as the two fastbiters turned away from him and sprinted off into the distance, each of them in a different direction, leaving him standing there with a dumbstruck face.

 _Ugh... Just great! What now? Hmm... Alright, let's see... Nesting sites are almost always in the vicinity of food and water. Maybe inside that forest back there? Shouldn't be more than two kilometers away. If I close the distance a little, maybe I can smell them out._

With that, he sprinted towards his point of interest. He used the available time to ponder a little on what would happen next.

He was about to steal some eggs. And then what? Shade had not even told him where to meet up after that. Also, he had mentioned someone called 'Chaser', who Specter could only conclude was the pack leader. So, where was he? Shouldn't the leader have the first word with potential newcomers, at least take a look at them before sending them out on a challenge?

That was when a rather uneasy thought crossed his mind.

 _What if he has already observed me? Or... still is? Can't be coincidence that these two found me just like that, and then just offered me to join them like it would be the most casual thing in the world. Something's not right. And if they're as 'special' as I think they are... I need to be careful!_

A shudder went through his body, even though this was barely noticeable at his current speed. But he shook those feelings off. The day had basically just started for him, and here he was stealing eggs and risking his feathered skin again. This new life required a cool head at all times, he knew that very well by now, so he tried to adapt.

When he reached the midpoint, he stopped shortly and sniffed the air.

 _Hmm... Yes, I smell something. Two of them... and eggs! But... those are new scents. Don't belong to anything I've seen so far. I wonder...  
_

He quickly resumed his movement and only stopped again when he stood right in front of the massive trees. The scents were much stronger now, but the question remained the same. Just to what kind of dinosaurs did they belong to?

 _I guess I will see soon enough..._

With that, he disappeared into the underbrush.

* * *

"Alright, fuzzball's in. What now?" Shade inquired.

"Meet up with Alba again. I will handle this myself. You're just backup this time. Both of you will wait on the other side and catch yourselves the runaway, should it come to that."

"Aha! I see you've finally changed your mind! Well, fine by me... Told you we oughta kill him sooner rather than later. Just make sure our 'friend' doesn't give you another parting gift. You're ugly enough as it is."

"Funny... coming from someone whose mug looks like a spiketail's ass after mating season."

Shade only responded to his leader's grave insult with a snarky smile before he went off, leaving the two-footer to himself and staring into the distance.

 _Oh, I'm going to enjoy this. You will finally pay for what you did. Time to die, you feathered bastard!_

* * *

 _Scents are getting stronger... must be close now._

Specter was moving towards the heart of this forest and still had no visual on his targets. He became a little uneasy at his situation. It was not like he was afraid, but rather deeply concerned. What if the two fastbiters had betrayed him and lured him into a trap? But why would they do that? How would they capitalize on his death? What would they gain from it?

 _Maybe they think of me as a rival? Nah, can't be. If their pack really consists of only three raptors, they need every additional claw... given that at least one of them is missing three already._

He chuckled slightly at that dirty joke at Shade's expense. However, he immediately went silent as he could make out some noise in the distance. He moved closer, and after approximately 50 more meters, he saw it.

 _What... the bloody hell... is that?!_

A massive leaf-eater, more than twice Specter's height, making it around six meters tall and probably five tons in weight. It looked like a longneck/two-footer/fastbiter hybrid, sporting a colorful blue, yellow, green and grey feathering, a long neck with a small head on top, a sturdy body and two powerful legs. The feathers on its rather short tail were so dense that it looked like an enlarged, fuzzy part of its rump. This dinosaur would have looked beyond funny, were it not for its menacing three claws on each forelimb. They were around one meter long each, and even from the distance already looked like razor-sharp tools of pain and sorrow.

 _A Therizinosaurus?! Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me! That guy will chop my head off!  
_

Specter gritted his teeth and tried to analyze the situation as rationally as possible. He perfectly understood now what Shade had meant when he said that raw strength meant nothing out here. This leaf-eater right there could easily injure even the biggest of predators severely with those claws.

 _I wonder what they call these here. Longclaws, maybe?_

The 'longclaw', indeed a strange name to give to a leaf-eater, looked peaceful enough at least right now, nonchalantly munching on some leaves. The nest with four big eggs in it was located just next to its guardian, so Specter decided to wait for an opportunity.

Only about a minute later, that opportunity would present itself. Another longclaw moved into his vision, a way smaller one. The scents gave away that this was the adult's son. Specter's leaf-eater was good enough by now, so he was able to effortlessly listen in on their conversation.

"Dad, I'm thirsty. Mind if I head over to the watering hole?"

The big herbivore stopped his feast and looked down at his son.

"If it's really necessary... But take care of yourself! I don't need to remind you what happened to your mother, do I?"

The smaller longclaw looked at the ground and shook his head.

"No... Can we please move, soon? I don't like it here."

"Don't worry, we will. Soon as the younglings hatch, we will be on our way."

His son gave him a nod and went off, leaving the father alone again. He took a sorrowful look at the clutch of eggs before holding a monologue.

"I'm so sorry, my dear. I know it was your only wish to see this day once more... But it won't be much longer, maybe another few days... I promise they will hear your story. You will never be forgotten!"

Were Specter not on the other side of the food chain, that heart-touching speech would have probably moved him to tears. Even more so his own plans for the clutch of eggs. But he noticed that those feelings didn't even come up this time. Some part of his conscience still made him aware that he would be doing something wrong, but he refused to let that stop him from acting anymore.

Part of adapting was accepting the bad things in a new environment, things he couldn't fight or suppress for the rest of his life. Hunting, killing and stealing eggs were merely tiny parts of that. And since those were just parts of his new life, wouldn't that make them good things? All those things that defined who and what he was to the core? Wouldn't being a fearsome killer make him a good raptor, a good sharptooth, a 'good guy'? Wouldn't that make all the 'evil' sharpteeth from the pack's songs, especially the despised but luckily long since dead Red Claw, good guys, too? Absolutely not, Specter decided in his mind. Those kinds of monsters enjoyed killing. They twisted the concepts of nature to justify murders. They didn't do it to survive, they didn't do it to satisfy their hunger. They did it for the thrill of it, for power and for mindless revenge.

Specter had to admit, however, he enjoyed hunting. He enjoyed his own thrill of lurking in the shadows and planning his deadly approach. He enjoyed the rush of adrenaline through his body with every chase. He enjoyed being strong, fast and agile. He enjoyed having sharp senses with which he was able to perceive his environment like he had never done before. He enjoyed being respected. He enjoyed being feared by any potential enemies or just his adversaries.

He enjoyed being a fastbiter.

And he knew he was a good guy. Because even though he had realized by now that he just wasn't able to make any pacifistic promises when it came to his new life, at the very least he would always be able to respect the lives of others. Yes, he was forced to constantly kill other dinosaurs, but he would also always be able to think of leaf-eaters as potential friends, peaceful creatures with a mind and soul, sources of most interesting conversations and wisdom.

As long as he would carry the light of empathy and understanding inside him, the darkness of the real world would never consume him, he deduced. As long as he had that, he would be fine.

He noticed with utmost annoyance that he had fallen into his philosophical thoughts again, but that was something he was quick to push aside, as a cunning thought crossed his mind. A dirty ruse, yet indeed well worth a try.

 _My resonating chamber... Yes... this might actually work. Let's get this show on the road!_

As silently as possible, he moved a few meters towards the direction where the young longclaw had gone to. When he found a good position, he turned away from the adult and took a deep breath.

 **Screech!**

 **"Ahh! Sharptooth!"**

"Oh please no! Hold on, son! I'm coming!"

The adult instantly dropped the leaves in his muzzle after screaming this and lumbered off as fast as he could.

Specter had to hold back his filthily amused laughter, as the longclaw followed his son's trail away from the nest. His predatory shriek, followed by an imitation of the young one's voice in leaf-eater came out near perfect and the adult took the bait without even thinking about any other possibility.

 _Sorry, dude. It's nothing personal... Just business..._

He jumped out of his cover and slowly moved towards the nest, only stopping when he was standing right in front of it. There they were. Four beautiful, big eggs. Four potential longclaw younglings. Four potential lives.

Soon to be no more.

He hesitated for just a moment. Was he really doing this? Was this really necessary? Was this really what he wanted? Was this really who he was?

Yes, it was indeed, he deduced. For him to survive in these strange lands, he needed help. The help of Chaser's pack. There was no other way. He couldn't just wait this out and hope for the best. He had to grasp this opportunity. So he used his big hands to grab all four eggs, already preparing himself to sprint off.

And that was when his cunning, seemingly foolproof plan went horribly wrong.

 **"Drop those eggs or I will let your ugly head roll."**

Specter froze in place at this voice from almost right behind him all of a sudden. Once more, he had gotten distracted by his overly reluctant nature and let his guard down. He had never noticed the rather loud footsteps while dwelling in his thoughts.

The voice and footsteps belonged to the adult longclaw. And the words had been uttered in sharptooth. Not knowing what to do now, Specter slowly turned around. He looked the leaf-eater directly in the eyes, exchanged his own horrified with the leaf-eater's ice cold gaze.

 **"I see that ridiculous idiot has found himself another lackey. Were the cripple and the hideous bitch not good enough anymore? Pathetic sharpteeth! You seriously think that retarded trick works on me twice?!"**

Having said that, the massive herbivore charged right at Specter, his six brutal claws extended for a deadly slashing strike.

 **Slice! Crash!**

He had just enough time to evade the attack by taking a big leap to the side, and he quickly extended the distance to his attacker. A few pieces of his golden crest feathers circled in the air, underlining how close he had gotten to being beheaded. The small tree which he was standing right next to only seconds ago had been sliced in half, and the severed trunk slammed onto the ground. He was still holding all four eggs in his hands, refusing to just drop them. A serious tactical error, as this restricted his movement speed immensely and occupied both of his clawed hands. The longclaw was terribly slow, even for a dinosaur of his size, but he was still agile enough to reach out with his long arms and slice anything closer than four meters of him to pieces. Specter was standing around 20 meters away from the longclaw now, still unable to come up with a useful tactic on how to kill or avoid him.

And then the leaf-eater started another charge.

 **"I will kill you, fastbiter scum!"**

 **Crash! Crash! Crash!**

Once again he froze in his tracks, preparing himself for another dodge. It would only be seconds.

 **Crash! Crash! Crash!**

The footsteps of his doom came closer and grew louder. How long would he be able to keep this up? He needed to counterattack somehow, but how would he attack such a heavily armed creature all by himself and without using his own dangerous forelimbs?

 **Crash! Crash! Crash!**

And then, in the blink of an eye, he realized something. If not for his highly sensitive ears, he would never have noticed it. A marginal irregularity in those steps. The sounds were not only coming from in front of him.

He and the longclaw were not alone in this forest.

"DUCK!"

Specter instantly snapped out of his horror and did as the new voice from behind him commanded. He lunged to his side and landed roughly on his back, holding the eggs close to his chest so as not to break them.

 **Roar!**

 **"You?!"**

 **Chomp! Snap! Crack! Thud.**

The longclaw's surprised and shocked words echoed through the forest. Nothing else from him should follow.

Specter had his eyes closed, only able hear his own and another, much deeper in tone, heavy panting.

"Heh... Nice work, fuzzball." Came the booming voice from not too far away. "Idiotic, clumsy, overzealous and reckless... but nice work nonetheless."

Specter groggily rose back on his feet and swung his head around. He laid eyes on a male Tyrannosaurus, quite a bit bigger and obviously much bulkier than him, with a dark green coloring and an uncountable amount of scars across his whole body. His right eye was bloodshot and had no visible pupil, so Specter could only conclude that he had lost it at some point in a past fight against a dirty opponent. In front of his feet lay the longclaw in a pool of its own blood, its head ripped clean off. The ruthlessness with which the sharptooth had simply overpowered the lethal leaf-eater was remarkable and horrifying at the same time.

And for some reason, this two-footer looked oddly familiar to Specter. He had no idea from where or why, but he was certain he knew him from somewhere, at least seen him before. He wanted to inquire, but the two-footer took the word first.

"Ah! And I see you got all four of them, too. Well done! Welcome to The Outlands! I'm Chaser."

His mouth fell wide agape. _This_ was Chaser, the pack leader? He took another look at the longclaw corpse before finally speaking up.

"Specter. And uhm... Thanks. But what about his...?"

That question got cut short, however, as the remaining packmembers joined the scene. Both of them covered in blood, which made especially Alba, having her white skin heavily tainted in that crimson essence, look like a deranged monster. Her introverted and silent nature only added to that ghastly overall image.

"...son." Specter finished inaudibly to himself. The two fastbiters had just confirmed his suspicions. The young longclaw was no more, too.

"So much for the big, scary fastbiter, 'I will rip your throats out' act. Well... I'm certainly glad that's out of the way." Shade thought aloud with a wide smirk on his face while strutting around on the headless longclaw body, wiping his bloody claws on the leaf-eater's feathers.

"Could somebody please tell me what's going on here?!" Specter suddenly exclaimed. He was still dumbstruck by the whole situation, could nowhere near comprehend all this.

"You passed my challenge. And also, you assisted me in taking care of unfinished business..." Chaser responded drily, taking a disgusted look at his kill again. "The eggs are yours. Consider them my personal gift for your help. I shall explain the rest later, when the time is right."

Specter glanced at the four eggs in his claws. Just by applying simple logic, he knew exactly what Chaser had meant with his statement about generously 'gifting' them to him. He was the pack's newcomer, so he was at the bottom of the pecking order. Chaser would have the adult longclaw for dinner, the entree, while Shade and Alba would eat his son, leaving Specter with only four measly eggs or maybe the leftovers. Then again, considering he already had a few pounds of spiketail meat in his stomach, this would probably only be fair.

Anyhow, he decided to keep his mouth shut, gave Chaser a firm, respectful nod and laid down on his haunches. These sharpteeth certainly knew what they were doing, it seemed. He would be safe with them for as long as he planned to stay, although this was a topic he tried to not think about yet. For now, he was just curious why this longclaw had been able to speak sharptooth and already knew of his dirty trick, and especially why Chaser called killing the leaf-eater 'unfinished business'.

He was actually able to answer, at least partially, the third question for himself. Chaser had some fresh scars on his flank, perfectly fitting to a longclaw's massive weapons. There must've been more to it than simple revenge for an injury, but the other two-footers he had met by now, namely Chomper and Thrasher, gave him reason enough to believe that their hot temper would justify such an action. Even though Chomper was a friendly guy who has taught him a great number of important things, Specter knew he should never ever get on his bad side. And Thrasher, well, Specter was actually glad to have gotten on his bad side. One monster less in the world, after all. No tears had he shed when he pierced that idiot's throat with his spear.

And for the first question, Specter's moderate knowledge about dinosaurs and evolution helped him in finding an answer.

 _Didn't Therizinosaurs have carnivorous ancestors? That would explain the bilingualism. Interesting... To think that they've kept this up for millions of years, even though they're full-fledged herbivores now._ _I guess it's about the same with Oviraptors, although they're at least omnivores. Hmm... Should've asked Ponder or her family about it. I'm sure Detras would know... Ah, too late now... Perhaps one day, if I survive all this shit, I will...  
_

He interrupted his thought process, as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Chaser was already ripping apart his kill and Shade had left the clearing for his dinner, but that was not what got his attention. Alba was still standing there, and she was pretty much staring at him. Her look was a combination of what he could only interpret as amusement, surprise and curiosity. Specter wondered why she would eye him like that, until he noticed that he was still holding the four longclaw eggs close to his chest, like he was protecting them with his life. Like they were his very own. Aware of that now, he quickly laid them out in front of him and acted like he had never noticed her. She could only shake her head at his reaction and went off as well.

When he was sure that he had nobody's attention anymore, he picked one of the eggs up again and raised it into the air. The sun would have done much a better job but the moonlight was good enough, as Specter could quite easily make out the egg's insides. No veins were visible, only one big shadow. The younglings would indeed soon hatch, which sadly only left him with one thing to do now.

He would have to crack the eggs open and devour their contents.

The logic in that was extremely wry, but this was by far the most ethical decision. If he would just leave the eggs to hatch, the younglings would either get killed by other predators or slowly and painfully die of hunger. Without their parents, nobody would care for them. Nobody would take them in. Specter certainly wouldn't, that was as certain as the rising sun on each morning to him. Rejecting Chaser's gift and giving the eggs to Shade or Alba was out of the question as well. It would've been most likely a grave insult towards a leader such as him, and Specter wanted to avoid anything like that under all circumstances. Besides, the others would probably not want to eat them, too, after having their latest meal.

Thinking about this, he noticed that the experience he has gathered in past weeks has changed his viewpoint on killing completely. It has been a constant and subtle change that had yet to finish, but the effects of it were easily discernible on the black fastbiter. At least if one could've read his thoughts.

 _I'm such a pathetic fucking hypocrite... Eggs, children, teens, adults, elders? Where's the damn difference? A kill is a kill, no matter if old or young. And I'm a killer... I will be for the rest of my life. Killing adults is ok for me, but killing children is not. Yeah, right... What a noble fucking saint I am! As if that would make me better than anyone else... As if anyone would care... Ughh... Let's just get this over with.  
_

His face took on an emotionless look. A neutral look of resolve, but even more so of acceptance and understanding. He had yet to find his own place in this world, had yet to fully explore and draw experience from it. And he was certain that he would find that place one day. The place where an oddity, a loner and an outsider like him belonged.

But for now, he wanted to go with the flow.

So he put the egg down on the ground again, held it in place with his left hand and placed the three claws of his right on its top. The lack of a thumb didn't even bother him anymore. Then, like a can opener, he pierced the egg with his right-hand claws and spun it around. The result was a clean cut on top of the egg, the insides of it now exposed. However, this was something Specter didn't dare to see. He just raised the egg again and poured its content into his jaws. He could already taste the yolk and other slimy liquids.

And then he bit down. His face contorted at the crunching sound that followed, but again, he didn't let that stop him. Lastly, he swallowed the little 'snack'.

He precisely repeated this process with the remaining three eggs, each time his bite followed by cracking of tiny little bones. When he was finally done with the eggs, everything inside and around him seemed silent. Chaser tearing through the adult longclaw's flesh was the only other source of noise he could pick up.

Maybe he had expected to suddenly choke and die, but none of that happened. Everything felt normal. The slight red and yellow stains around his muzzle and the decent taste on his tongue was all that remained of the unborn children. He found that it wasn't so bad, after all. Actually, it was a lot like eating a chicken eggs. Only that those were not fertilized of course.

Being honest himself, he didn't even know what to think anymore.

The minutes went by and after Chaser finally had his fill, the fastbiters, too, joined the scene.

"Enjoyed your meal?"

"I've eaten better..." Specter responded in a sad monotone to Shade's snarky question.

"Speaks volumes, I guess. Can't be too bad though. Wait until you try clubtail eggs... Taste like ass." The blue fastbiter said and let out an amused laugh.

Specter didn't want to force a laugh of his own, he absolutely wasn't in the mood for that anymore, so he only responded with a slight smile.

"Let's head back to our territory now. Don't want to stay here any longer than necessary." Chaser's deep voice made Shade and Alba stand at attention and they quickly joined him in formation.

So did Specter. He jumped up and situated himself behind all three of them. His new, free life would start with this pack under Chaser's reign. Quite ironic, he found, but probably not without reason.

* * *

The trip back to the borders of their actual territory lasted less than 15 minutes and no conversations whatsoever had arisen. The reason for that became obvious when the pack finally reached their home, which was situated in the heart of another big forest.

"Alright, we're there. Shade, Alba? Leave us alone for now. This doesn't concern you."

"Understood." Shade responded to the leader's order while Alba only nodded, and both of them sprinted off.

Only after he had lost sight of them, Chaser turned his full attention to Specter.

"Sit down. We have a lot to discuss."

"I'd rather stand... You know, keeps me awake. Been a long day for me." Specter responded carefully. Although the two-footer had saved his life, he didn't exactly consider him a friend. And also, he didn't really want to sit down in front of another big predator, thus minimizing his chances to run.

Chaser seemed to shrug with his tiny arms, let out a sigh and laid down on his haunches.

"Suit yourself. Now, let's start with some rules. There are only two, so listen closely. Number one. _Never_ lie to me. Number two. You do as I say. Understood?"

Specter flinched shortly after hearing Chaser's cold, stern voice, quickly responded with two firm nods and finally sat down himself. It looked like the two-footer had observed him for far longer than he had expected and was quite cautious himself. The fact that his healthy left eye seemed to stare directly into Specter's soul didn't really help him relax.

Only now, Chaser continued.

"Good. So, I think you owe me a few answers. Let's start with the most interesting one. What is someone of Seeker's pack doing in these lands?"

"How do you know that?!" Specter immediately sputtered.

"A fastbiter who speaks sharptooth and leaf-eater. A strange sight, wouldn't you agree? And the songs only tell about one pack with those new, 'feathered' fastbiters such as yourself. Seeker's pack. The pack that finally managed to defeat... Red Claw."

Would Specter still have had eyebrows, he would have raised at least one of them after hearing this. For someone with knowledge about all this, it was a little bit unusual to almost forget the name of the most evil sharptooth ever. At least that was what it had seemed like when Chaser cut himself off right before finally giving the monster its proper name.

But he still gave him an honest answer.

"Yes, I... belong to them. And... I kinda woke up here after the... Smoking Mountain erupted."

"Ah, so I was right, after all. Well, where are they? I'm sure they wouldn't just leave you here, would they? And what did you want on that dumb rock?"

Specter looked at the ground for a second. It was exactly what they had done, but it was his own fault of course. After all, he had cunningly decided to do everything by himself. Now they were probably assuming he was dead and would quickly forget him again. They probably wouldn't even mourn his loss. Why would they? They barely got to know him.

"I went to the Great Valley... on my own. I had some... personal things to take care of there. I can't remember why I was on the Mountain though, I'm sorry."

"They're willingly letting sharpteeth into their valley?!" Chaser asked in massive surprise.

"They made an exception for me. Had offer them my life, only eat fish and help out with various... things... to be allowed to stay. Only wanted to talk to some of them."

"Talk to them? Good one!" Chaser let out a slight chuckle. When he continued, his voice dropped most of the joy it had carried for a few seconds. "Tzz... Typical of those sap-suckers. Afraid of their own shadow. I'd love to hunt around there once more, give those flatheads and horn-faces a good scare... but those times are long over..."

Specter felt the urge to let his jaw drop. Just who in the world was this two-footer? If he had hunted around the Great Valley at some point in his life, then that was not exactly a good sign. Although he immediately asked himself the counterquestion. Why? Why would it be a bad sign that Chaser had hunted there?

He decided to simply ignore Chaser's latest sentence for now.

"Yeah... right. So... how did you know I can speak leaf-eater?"

"Because unlike most other sharpteeth, I listen. And also, the trick you pulled on the longclaw. It's not the first time I've seen it. I don't want to praise myself too much but it's quite a brilliant trick, I have to say."

"Wait... So it was _you_ who used it on him before!" Specter exclaimed. He would've rather felt excited about finally getting the language of this time right, but now he was simply furious.

"He mentioned it before he tried to slice you apart? Lovely fella, hm? Yes, on his mate, though I must admit that it was Shade's idea. Came out rough but she still fell for it so easily. Sap-suckers are stupid, I say it time and time again."

Specter wanted to object, but exercised restraint on the whole leaf-eater topic. However, he could not restrain his anger about the challenge.

"But _he_ didn't fall for it, did he?! That's why you wanted me to steal his eggs! You wanted revenge for those little scratches!"

Chaser let out a throaty laugh.

"Well, if you want to put it that way. I have a habit of making others pay for my injuries. Eye for an eye. And that bastard didn't deserve anything less... Shame I didn't let him live long enough to make him see you eat his eggs, anymore..."

Specter's stomach turned after hearing this. He suddenly felt like he was going to vomit again. Never had he experienced such a disgusting lust for revenge from someone. He had been used by Chaser as a simple decoy to distract the longclaw and to make the poor leaf-eater suffer even more. And this sharptooth was his new leader now. He would have to trust him with his life. He would have to obey his orders. Even worse, he would most likely have to spend quite a few weeks with him.

Chaser, however, as unfazed as he was, was not yet finished.

"And concerning your challenge... I wanted to squash two buzzers with one stomp. Worked out, didn't it? You got some food, we got some food. Everyone's happy. Now... since you're from Seeker's pack... Say, how much do you know about Red Claw?"

"Red Claw? Uhm... I mean... I know he's dead and everything, but... that was... before my time here. What does he have to do with this, anyway?"

Chaser looked at Specter in surprise.

"What? Don't tell me you weren't there! I was hoping you could tell me a few details about that. It's been eight cold times now, I believe, and I have yet to meet someone who saw him die. And with you, I thought that someone would finally be here. You must know something! After all, your pack killed him. You killed my father."

As if on cue, the gigantic dam of memories breached inside Specter's mind. Alien memories and images flooded his brain, a tsunami of emotions overwhelming his senses. He knew now who this two-footer was, what his real name was, what his history was. But that memory didn't come from his own point of view and neither did it come from a green or yellow fastbiter's story, or of that of a brown flyer.

It was a brown fastbiter's mournful, solitary song from the point of view of his past life as a little longneck, his mother just having been killed, chased together with his friends by a horrible monster through barren lands. Unrelenting, unforgiving, unstoppable. A massive, dark green two-footer. The meanest, cruelest, most brutal sharptooth of them all. Chaser. Although back then, he had been known under a different name.

A much simpler name.

" _Sharptooth_! You?! How...?! No. No! You're supposed to be dead! You drowned in that watering hole! You're dead!" Specter screamed in horror and shock. He had never before even seen this two-footer, and yet he could feel the fear, despair and horror of being chased by a predator. Littlefoot's song was just too brutal and detailed to think anything else. Now he knew what it must feel like. And even more so, had that Tyrannosaurus succeeded back then, had he killed the one that had taken Specter in just weeks ago, Specter himself would've probably not been alive right now. He could feel the hate towards this sharptooth building up inside him.

He instantly jumped up, took a few steps back and presented the usual fastbiter fighting stance, although he looked utterly helpless compared to the two-footer.

Chaser on the other hand kept calm as the breeze. He was slightly amused, enjoyed this moment even.

"Ah, so you _do_ know me! I see my old name still carries a meaning somewhere. Long ago since I've last heard someone call me by it..."

Specter was at a complete loss for reasonable words. This just couldn't be possible. Even worse for him was that he couldn't decide if he wanted to be immensely scared or extremely angry about this revelation. For all he knew, Chaser, or rather Sharptooth, was just like Red Claw. At the very least, he indirectly was the reason why Red Claw had decided to have revenge on the Great Valley. Apparently, after he had found out about his son's death, he completely snapped and really became the cruelest being to ever haunt the lands around the valley.

Chaser used Specter's silence to continue.

"Well? Did you think two-footers couldn't swim? Did you actually see my corpse?"

"I know your kind can swim! I... I didn't see it for myself but... it doesn't matter! Someone must have found it! Everyone knows you're dead for years now!"

"As you can clearly see, I'm not."

"That doesn't make any sense! The water must've bloated and disfigured your body after only a few days! No way anyone would mistake..."

"Who said it was _my_ body?" Chaser interrupted Specter harshly. He let out a deep sigh before continuing. "Why are you so jumpy all of a sudden? If you belong to those that had the power to defeat my father... then I'm asking for your help."

"What?!" Specter exclaimed in his anger. "My help?! After you tried to kill those five children?!"

For once, Chaser was seriously taken aback at Specter suddenly bringing some random children into this conversation.

"What do you mean? What do little sap-suckers have to do with it now?"

"A lot! Only weaklings kill children..." Came Specter's growled response. However, he had forgotten about one little detail in his rage.

"Oh, is that so? I suppose the spiketail back then wasn't a child? And those eggs? They would've hatched in the next one or two days, you know that, right?"

Specter's eyes widened after that. Chaser had a point there, but he was determined to find something else to make him look like the monster he wanted him to be. Why he did that, he had no clue just yet.

"That... That was something different! I was hungry and there was nothing else there! But _you_! You killed an adult longneck back then! Back when you should have died! And you still went after two little children! The longneck and the threehorn!"

"How do you...?! Hmm... I guess you will explain this soon enough, anyway. Yeah, I did. So what? The adult died... after she pushed me down a damn cliff! Not my fault those children were the only edible thing far and wide. What was I supposed to do? Lie down and die? Besides, like I would care. Food is food. But this little longneck shit... He made it personal. Oh, if I would ever get the chance see him again I would take _both_ of _his_ eyes!"

"You won't do such a thing." Specter replied plainly. His voice had become a lot calmer now, after hearing what Chaser had to say about his past. His actions made perfect sense for a hungry sharptooth, and Specter found himself thinking that he would have probably done the same in that situation. Probably.

There still were a lot of open questions we would've liked to ask, but he figured that it was enough to assess the two-footer. He had experienced by now that once a sharptooth's instincts took over, there was no stopping it. A hungry sharptooth would kill anything to survive, and he would instinctively enjoy it.

"And why would I not?!" Chaser snarled deeply.

"Because he would kill you a second time." Specter responded, already wearing a slight smile on his face by now.

"What?! That bastard is actually still alive?!" Chaser roared in anger and annoyance, rising to his full height himself now.

"Indeed he is. You could say he's changed a lot, too. Tell me, Chaser, do you believe in fate?"

Specter should not get an answer, as Shade and Alba burst into the meeting, both of them panting heavily. It seemed like they've heard the two big sharpteeth's argument from kilometers away.

"Everything alright? We've heard roars and screeches and..."

"I thought I ordered you to leave us alone?!" Chaser interrupted Shade in his anger, but then calmed his voice as much as he could, too. "It's all fine. We just had a little... disagreement. Show him to the sleeping spots. And you, Specter... We'll talk tomorrow. If you're willing to help, you're most welcome here. If not, you will have to leave. Think about it."

The last bit didn't come as too much of a surprise to Specter, and he agreed to this compromise with an affirmative grunt. He was just glad that Chaser was not his immediate enemy. The two-footer's dark history still made something cringe inside him and he had yet to reveal what sort of help we was expecting from him, but Specter decided to play his cards safe for now. As far as he had been able to rationally analyze their conversation, Chaser was a hot-headed and cruel guy but had at least his principles. He was the kind of guy Specter would have normally despised in his past life. However, out here such a guy could often improve his followers' chances of survival by a lot, if he knew what he was doing. And it certainly looked like he did, Specter confirmed to himself once more. And who could blame Chaser for his anger? Specter was one of the select few to know about the definite fate of the most fearsome sharptooth of all. Or maybe he even was the only one besides Chaser himself?

He rather not thought too much about it.

"Will do. Follow us." Shade concluded.

Specter joined the two other fastbiter's formation and together, they sprinted off again.

* * *

It only took the trio a few minutes until they arrived at their sleeping area. It was located at the northern border of the forest and on top of a ridge with a small overhang, estimated by Specter to be around ten meters above the ground. A big rock formation, just like a miniature version of Hanging Rock, provided shelter from wind and weather for the fastbiters. He found it to be a beautiful and cozy little place, especially since he had a clear view at the starlit sky from the overhang. Maybe the other fastbiters didn't really care about that but to him, this was the perfect place to sleep.

"Well, here we are. Home, sweet home. You like it?"

"Thanks, Shade. It really is nice here." Specter responded, still in awe at everything around him.

"Glad to hear. So, I'm gonna have a few more important things to discuss with Chaser. Could take a while. You just make yourself at home, ok?

"With pleasure! See you next morning, I guess."

Shade gave him a friendly nod and disappeared in the underbrush again, leaving Specter alone with Alba, who had already curled herself up in her personal spot. But Specter was nowhere near capable of going to sleep now. There was just too much on his mind.

So he went over to the overhang and sat down at the edge, looking profoundly at the distant stars. He found that the hardships in this world made the times of peacefulness all the more sweet and relaxing. He could've spent days gazing at the beautiful night sky but it would probably get dull and the beauty of it would disappear, were there not the fights for survival and the constant presence of death on the daytime, he figured. All of this seemed so surreal and wrong, still, but at the same time so soothing and right.

He spent quite some time just sitting there and never noticed a pair of bright blue eyes watching him.

"Do you mind?"

Had nature not gifted him with an incredible sense of smell and a pair of extremely sensitive ears, he would've probably jerked back at this new voice from right beside him. As it was, however, he had already smelled and heard her minutes before she decided to speak up. It was still nice to hear her voice for the first time, he thought to himself.

"Not at all."

Alba sat down beside him, and a few more moments of silence went by until Specter finally spoke up.

"Hey listen... About earlier... I just wanted to say... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted like that."

Alba looked at him in surprise. She intuitively checked his scents for the truth of that statement, and found it immediately. What really surprised her, however, was that she also noticed deep regret and sorrow in them. She had no clue why, so she decided not to comment on that for now.

"It's ok. I'm used to it." She took a contemplative pause there, trying to make out what the black fastbiter was so interested in. "Do you see something?"

"The Night Circle." Specter responded plainly.

Alba switched her attention to the brightly illuminated circle in the sky.

"What about it? It looks just like always."

Specter let out a slight laugh.

"Yes, but that's not what I meant. You see, the Night Circle does not shine by itself. It is rather the Bright Circle on the other side of this earth that illuminates it and makes it look like it does now. And yet, we can always see only one side of it and the full Night Circle always looks the same. There was a time in my life where I wondered what the other side of it would look like. I was curious, eager to discover a new world and maybe find something different from the same old view. I desperately wished to see the other side, I wanted to see something new that I would maybe like better. I wanted to create something on this new side, something that no one else before me had ever seen. And when I finally saw what that new side looked like, I was shocked. It was ugly, strange and hostile. It wasn't what I was used to. It wasn't what I wanted to see. It wasn't what I had expected. Even worse, I will never see the old side again. The Night Circle will always look like this for the rest of my life... And yet, I still somehow got used to that new side and now I'm starting to like it. I even find joy in looking at it now, and I'm forgetting what the old side looked like. No, I _want_ to forget what the old side looked like, because it was even uglier than the new side now that I know both. Do you think that's wrong?"

Alba only responded with a few moments of silence at first. For the life of her, she could not understand what he had tried to say with that. But she still wanted to give him an answer.

"Well... If you started to like the 'new side', why would it be wrong? Maybe you will never see the 'old side' again, but you could start over. That doesn't mean that you have to forget what you're used to. Maybe you could remember all the good things from the old side while you're looking at the new side."

"Hm. Logos said exactly the same thing..." Specter muttered to himself.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Thanks, Alba. You really helped me out."

He couldn't see her smile, but he was quite certain she shared his own emotion. Maybe too certain, but he didn't mind this at the moment. Both raptors kept looking up at the night sky in silence after that.

* * *

 **So, this is chapter 10. The longest so far, and I do believe for a valid reason, as it introduces a lot of critical new elements and characters. I would like to use this opportunity to mention a few important things as well.  
**

 **Let's start with the comeback of a certain two-footer. I absolutely wanted to have him in here, and he will reveal more details about his past in the future. Maybe the introduction is a little cringe-worthy, but I saw no other way. Had to be like this, anything else would've not satisfied me. Sorry for that. ;)**

 **So, you can maybe already see where I'm going with this. I hope to bring in many more different species of dinosaurs that never appeared in the original LBT series or just never really had any real screen time, over the course of this story. Therizinosaurus is just the first step. And it works as a good example, too, because those "new" dinos I will include will have feathers, if there's evidence they did have them in real life.**

 **Next, I want to thank everyone for the support and reviews. Each kind word or constructive critisicm brings a smile on my face. :)**

 **And lastly, I would like to let you guys know that I'll be quite busy over the next few weeks, so there most likely won't be a new chapter until the first weeks of November. Another reason why this chapter turned out to be pretty huge. Think of it as an extended version, and as a little apology that nothing will come over the next weeks.  
**

 **What I can say is that the next chapter will be most likely something "different". I will have to see if I'm gonna do it like I've planned, but if I do, it should be something highly interesting to look forward to. :)**

 **So, I hope you enjoyed this installment and as always:**

 **Take care, and have a nice day!**

 _ **Revised**_


	12. Chapter 11: Rise of Evil

**Chapter 11: Rise of Evil  
**

 _ **"The way I see it, no man is born evil. We are all shaped by our environment, our surroundings, and the people we stand close to. However, it's those that have the most love to give I would be wary of, for they have also by far the most to lose."  
**_

"Is he still asleep?!"

"Come on, Shade, leave him be. I'm sure Chaser won't be..."

"He will." Shade interrupted his sister. "He wants an answer from him as much as I do. Besides... Hey... why would _you_ suddenly care...? Ah, I see... Somebody got a little 'fuzzy' last night, am I right?"

The untactful innuendo in that was pretty clear to Alba, she knew her brother and his typical kinds of mockery better than anyone else after all, but she decided not to give him an opening. Why would she, anyway? There was absolutely nothing to hide. This mysterious black fastbiter was certainly 'interesting' in many ways and it was certainly 'interesting' getting to know him a bit on the last night, maybe she would even call him a friend at some point, but taking him as a mate?

Out of the question. She knew herself she was a weirdo since hatch, having that cursed white skin and being around a head taller than other fastbiters now that she was fully grown, but this 'Specter' was a plain freak. That gesture with the longclaw eggs, talking some crazy stuff about the 'other side' of the Night Circle, seemingly speaking to his food even, and so on ad nauseam. Not to mention those useless feathers, which were not even colored attractively, no other fastbiter had.

No, she has never paid those thoughts about 'love' much heed. To her, there was no such thing in this world and she was a loner when it came to family matters. She didn't need that and she didn't want that. Ironically, she might've been extremely superficial in this case, being not exactly viewed as the definition of beauty herself, but that had a good reason. No male had ever even dared to court her. It had always been the same deal whenever she met one. They would either run away in disgust or try to kill her, and it was the same with other females. Most of the time it had been the second option as well. She was sick and tired of it. So why would this newcomer be any different? Of course he would be acting nice whilst staying here, whatever his intentions for that actually were. It didn't matter how he behaved now, for he had already shown his true face when he first laid eyes on her, just like every other sharptooth apart from two certain exceptions. She must've terribly misinterpreted his scents, she figured.

"You're not. I would just like to avoid hearing two big sharpteeth argue so early in the morning." Alba gave her response in a cold monotone.

Those hefty wounds of the past would never heal. In the years until reaching adulthood, she had quickly come to the understanding that the only two sharpteeth she could ever trust were her brother and Chaser. And even the two-footer was a special case. Not only was he not one of her kind but, in more ways than one, he was also just like Shade and herself. Someone who had lost everything. A dead dinosaur walking. A forgotten one.

Shade was obviously aware of his sister's extensive and painful history, so he decided not to press the point any further. For all his jokes and taunts, he always knew when to stop.

"That makes two of us... Oh well, I'm certain it will be fine this time." Having said that, he went over to the big, prone form of Specter and placed himself at his rear. "Time to wake up, fuzzball..."

He just wanted to give Specter's tail a nip when he felt something touching his own behind. Something pointed.

"If you bite my tail, I'm gonna cut yours off."

Shade instantly jumped back in surprise and eyed the big fastbiter. Specter was lying on his side and still had one of his long legs extended, with the sickle claw deployed. That pose might have dealt a severe amount of damage, had he really been serious about his statement, but it also looked beyond hilarious to Shade. He couldn't help but laugh loudly and flash a wide smirk afterwards.

"Jeez, aren't you a morning grouch!" He finally retorted in a provocative fashion.

Specter only let out an annoyed grumble at first. Even in his drowsiness, it was quite obvious to him that Shade was fully awake and enjoyed being up early. Pretty much the exact opposite of himself, especially considering what would be expected of him on this morning.

Nothing less than a decision that could change his life forever. Yet again. And this time for good. If someone like Chaser asked for help, it must've been indeed something very nasty going on in these lands. And as much as Specter would have liked to help him without listening to his own concerns, he had another debt to pay back and that was a matter of honor to him, he had to admit that he was the completely wrong fastbiter for the job. He knew pretty much nothing about fighting, except that he would most likely lose to anyone he didn't get the chance to sneak up on. Which by itself wasn't exactly an easy task, considering he was standing almost three meters tall. It was enough to kill a common leaf-eater without any critical defenses but, as he had already found out in his fight against the longclaw, as soon as his opponent had some real way to strike back, it started to look rather grim for him. Maybe not with a full group of experienced killers as backup, such as Littlefoot's pack, but surely with only a three-sharptooth squad. With such a small pack, everyone must've been able to trust completely in the abilities and competences of each other. And while Specter surely trusted Shade, Alba and Chaser when it came to combat, he didn't trust himself at all in that regard.

But maybe he wouldn't even need to fight. The legendary pack of Seeker was also renowned for their intelligence, so maybe for him to 'help' he would only be required to use his brain, he figured. If so, then that would make it all a lot easier.

Whatever way he put it, however, the problem lay elsewhere. He made himself aware again that he was forced to stay with this pack. He needed to figure out and get to know these lands before he would be able to strike off on his own again. And the only way for him to do that was to help Chaser's cause, even if he would have to lie once more. Leaving them, assisting them, fighting with or for them respectively, his life would be at stake either way sooner or later.

But for now, he wanted to discuss something more pressing with him. He would demand an extensive answer from the two-footer, first.

Specter rolled over on his feet, slowly stood up, puffed up his chest while wiggling with his tail and let out a loud yawn.

 _Anything but my tail..._ He thought to himself, glancing shortly at that extended part of his body. His face was emotionless right now but mentally, he had to smile widely. It somehow surprised him what kind of affection he has built up to his precious tail over the past weeks. The stuff he could do with it, the emotions he could express and the agility it granted him. Also, he found that it looked cool with the golden feathers at its tip, almost like his personal fan. Well, at least it could have functioned as that, were his tail not mostly stiff and thus rendering him unable to bend it around freely.

Howsoever, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if any harm came to it. And that included even playful bites from annoying little ankle-biters.

"Always have been, always will be... Alright, let's go." He concluded and gave Shade a nod to get moving.

With that, the three fastbiters walked towards the meeting point.

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

"Can we talk?"

Ruby turned away from the rest of the pack, around to Littlefoot's calm voice and eyed him for a moment. He certainly seemed to be unusually worried after his conversation with Thud on the last day, she noted to herself.

"Of course. What is it?"

"I'd rather speak to you in private. It's about... you know..."

Ruby wanted to feel excited about hearing some hopeful news concerning the lost member of their pack, however, the tone in her mate's voice did not trigger that feeling at all. She gave him a nod and followed him away from the rest.

When they reached a safe distance, Littlefoot took a quick look at the playing children, which Thud seemed to supervise right now, and partly still sleeping adults in the back before switching his full attention to Ruby.

"Ponder... When Spotter returned to us, he mentioned that Specter told him to speak to you about something. Something about him being a danger and not returning to us. I would like to finally hear what exactly that something is. I know, it doesn't matter anymore but... I just... want to know."

It looked like the time was there for Ruby to finally relay the horrifying news she had acquired from Specter. She didn't like this at all, but better talking about it openly than hiding it forever and letting that knowledge eventually wear her out.

With a heavy heart, she raised her voice.

"It was after I found him in my Thinking Place on his second day with us. He... told me again about what he once was, and where exactly he came from. He said that... he also didn't belong in this time, and he knew about... what will happen to us one day. Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Yes." Littlefoot responded firmly, although he tilted his head slightly. He perfectly recognized the fearful tone in Ruby's voice. It was unusual for her to not share knowledge with him, so what she knew must've been indeed horrible. "He knew a great amount of interesting things, so why wouldn't I want to hear that, too?"

"Alright, but..." She let out a short sigh. Now she could understand completely why Specter had been so reluctant to tell her this. Even thinking about it felt like the Orange Death was steadily killing her from the inside. This knowledge was pure, emotional torture. "See, he told me that he couldn't stay with us because in order for his... 'old kind' to live... all of us will... Well... We have to..."

"What? Come on, dear, what is it?" Littlefoot asked in a soothing tone. Mentally, however, he was frightened to the core, as this reminded him exactly of when he had first met the black fastbiter. He didn't get an answer back then, but now he finally would. And he could only expect the worst.

Little did he know how bad it actually was.

"We will all die. Every single one of us, every single dinosaur, will die one day... We will just... stop to exist."

"What?!" He immediately exclaimed with a suppressed shriek to not draw any unwanted attention. "But... how would that be possible?!"

Ruby looked up at the sky for a second. Somehow, almost unconsciously, she hoped that Littlefoot would get the hint but it served as a great way to recompose her thoughts as well.

"It will start with a flying rock. With a flying rock it will start..."

* * *

 **The Outlands:**

"Finally. I was beginning to fear you ran away in the night."

Specter could only roll his eyes at this taunt coming from Chaser. His face instantly turned serious though, as the two-footer continued.

"You had your time to think. So? What will it be?"

Shade and Alba had already stopped their movement but Specter continued to approach Chaser until he stood face-to-face with him. The siblings certainly had their worries about what the big fuzzball planned on doing now.

"I have one condition."

But this made their jaws drop. Nobody had ever dared to do that to Chaser. The usual banter among them, at least between him and Shade, was quite normal but it was common knowledge that one would never make any demands on him. Not on a leader and especially not on a two-footer.

"You're not exactly in a position to make demands, fuzzball." Chaser matter-of-factly stated the obvious, as if he would be talking to a lesser creature instead of a large fastbiter. It was quite easily noticeable that he had already expected something like this and was trying his utmost to show his superiority.

And it worked out with extreme effectiveness. Specter was shaking with fear inside. This was once again a massive gamble he was playing right there, but there was just no other way he could have reconciled his plans with his conscience. He would rather die than assisting a heartless murderer with some ugly business on a hopeless course. Sure enough, while Chaser himself might not have been known from all of those horrible stories, his father certainly was. Specter's concerns here lay in a common saying. Like father, like son.

However, he suppressed showing this like his life depended on it. Plainly because it did.

" _You_ want something from _me_ , don't you?" He responded in the same, dry fashion. "Where I'm from, you sort of exchange things when you do that. Rest assured, I am in no way questioning your authority nor am I making any demands. It's simply a matter of etiquette. I give you my help and you give me something in return. Information, for example."

Dead silence followed for a moment after that statement. He was expecting Chaser to snap and scream at or attack him, but none of that happened. The two-footer's reaction surprised him, to say the least.

Chaser looked over at Shade and nodded at him, to which he let out an annoyed sigh. The blue fastbiter knew all too well that this was the order for him and his sister to leave the two 'big sharpteeth' alone again. Both of them didn't hesitate for even a split second, as they turned around and sprinted off.

Only now, Chaser turned his attention back to Specter and spoke up again.

"Hmm. You confuse me, Specter. You are so unlike any other fastbiter. I have yet to figure out if you're really brave... or just plain stupid."

"A little bit of both, I guess." Specter responded in the usual self-mocking tone he used whenever he was under pressure. What else was left for him to do?

Chaser let out the slightest of laughs. A gesture more intimidating than anything else, as he still had the same piercing look in his left eye.

"Very well. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. What is it that you want to know?"

Specter wanted to feel relieved that the situation de-escalated before it even had the chance to get out of control, but he still remained professional about everything.

"Your past. If you want me to help you, I want to know everything about you. I want to know why your father brought so much suffering and pain over everyone. And most of all, I want to know how it's possible that you're still alive. After all, everything your father did, he did because he thought you had died. So if not yours, whose corpse _did_ he find?"

He couldn't interpret Chaser's inner reaction, as the look in his eye remained the same, but he could've sworn noticing the slightest notes of sadness in his scents.

"That's a long story... Let's hunt, shall we? We can talk while we wait for a suitable target." The two-footer finally offered.

Specter responded with a satisfied nod, joined Chaser at his side and followed him out of the forest.

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

"... and the sharpteeth will follow. First the leaf-eaters and then the sharpteeth. Nobody will be able to hide from it. Only some small flyers or bellydraggers will survive, if I remember his words correctly. They will live on. But it will be our end. Our end it will be. And I think he said it will happen soon." Ruby concluded her sad speech.

Littlefoot just stared at Ruby in utter horror and then proceeded to turn his back towards her to recompose himself. He could nowhere near understand how Specter was supposed to have known the outcome and all the details of such a gigantic catastrophe. What frightened him even more was that he knew there was no way Specter could have lied to Ruby about this. This upcoming cataclysm would affect him, too, after all. It bothered him immensely, however, that he had not been open with him as well. Why had Specter only explained this to Ruby? Had he honestly thought nobody else would care? Had he thought the pack didn't deserve to know?

No, there was no way. Specter had been an intelligent and honest fastbiter. He would have never done such a cold-hearted thing.

 _Unless..._

"Ponder?"

Him suddenly speaking again after quite some time of complete silence almost made Ruby flinch.

"Yes?"

"Don't you think it's strange?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he never told us about this. And I could imagine he only told _you_ because of that sleep story he had on that day. I know you, Ponder. You comforted him in his time of need, and he told you about this stuff in return. He probably felt obliged to. Do you think I didn't notice his scents, back then? So, what next? The day before yesterday... he coincidentally 'died' because of a flying rock. And now there are stories about..." He cut himself off there, letting out a deep sigh before finally turning around to his mate again. He looked her straight in the eye. "Never mind. I'm just thinking too much... Thanks, dear."

After that, Littlefoot went off without another word, leaving Ruby standing there with a heavily concerned look on her face.

* * *

 **The Outlands:**

"Alright, we're there. A herd of longnecks should pass through this area in a bit. Now we just have to wait."

Specter sat down besides the already prone form of Chaser and gave him an affirmative nod. Both of them had themselves situated on a vantage point, granting them an enormous field of view over the lands below. Everything was calm and peaceful right now. But Specter knew that soon, this wouldn't be the case anymore. Soon, the ground would be tainted with the guts and blood of an unlucky longneck.

He decided to seize this tranquility for his questions. Who knew when he would get the next chance?

"So... about your..."

"Tell me..." Chaser immediately cut him off, albeit in a very calm voice. "You think he was a monster. You think I am just like him."

Specter knew about Red Claw's true nature and all of his crimes of course, it was just one of the many things the pack had told him, but he wanted to avoid turning this relaxed talk into another fierce argument, so he formulated his answer with extreme care.

"I restrain myself from judging someone I've never met or don't have a lot of time spent with. I only know what I've heard from Seeker. But since you're asking me like this, I'm guessing you're about to tell me otherwise."

"No, I would have told you that you're right." Chaser replied instantly. "He had it coming, and I'm indeed like him in many ways. But there is a fine difference between me and what my father had become."

"And what would that be?" Specter asked in a neutral tone.

"I noticed our paths would eventually lead to nothing but our demise, whereas he failed to realize that."

He eyed the two-footer for a few seconds, wondering if this would turn out to be Chaser's attempt of making Red Claw look like a poor victim, a misunderstood savior, a tragic hero, but he could already anticipate it was far more complicated than that.

And he should soon be enlightened, as Chaser continued.

"It all started when I returned to my family. It's been so long, but I will remember that day for the rest of my life..."

* * *

 **Many** **years ago:**

 _Yes, this is their territory. Neat! I'm finally there!  
_

Chaser was panting slightly, as he was carrying a big swimmer carcass on his back. The leaf-eater was actually bigger than himself, but for this special occasion he didn't care about that. After all, even though he was only visiting his father and mother, etiquettes had to be preserved.

 _It's been almost six warm times since I left them. I wonder how they've been..._

He didn't expect a lot to be different though. His father was one of the strongest sharpteeth around, and so was his mother. He has built up quite a reputation for himself over the past seasons, despite not fully grown yet and the fact that he was living and hunting alone, which only made him the best example of his family's inheritance.

 _Still no sight of them... Strange... But I can smell..._

"Stop right there!"

Chaser froze in his tracks and swung his head around to his right. Standing in cover of some trees was another two-footer, an adult, colored in a simple gray. A sharptooth he had not seen in ages.

"Father!" Chaser happily exclaimed. "How have you been? Look what I've..."

"Silence!" The adult interrupted him harshly. "You will call me by my name from now on, you understand?"

Chaser was seriously taken aback by this cold greeting, but obeyed his father without even thinking too much about it. Though he couldn't help but ask himself just what in the world had brought this severe change.

"Of course, Ardor, I apologize." He calmly responded while bowing his head deeply. "I wish to enter your territory, so I have brought a peace offering, just like our customs demand."

The adult took a quick look at the big swimmer corpse on his son's back and several moments of silence followed. Right before he suddenly let out a hearty laugh.

"You will never change, will you, Chaser? Always overdoing it... Oh come here already!"

Chaser was overwhelmed and out of words, but soon snapped out of it, walked up to his father and embraced necks with him. It was the first time since multiple cold times they did that, but it felt like he had never left his parents at all.

"I missed you." He croaked out with a broken voice and slightly wet eyes. Somehow, he was feeling embarrassed by that, he was a strong sharptooth after all, but he really couldn't care less about his pride right now.

"I missed you, too. It's good to see you're doing well, my son." His father responded.

When they were done with that emotional embrace, Ardor took over the swimmer corpse and both sharpteeth proceeded to walk back home.

"By the way... Ardor... did something... happen while I was gone?" Chaser asked the inevitable question after some time. It was pretty clear to him that something must have changed, but maybe it was just him being much older now that motivated his father to demand a more respectful attitude towards one another.

"Yes, you could say it that way." Ardor responded joyfully.

"Well... What is it?" Came the curious question from Chaser.

Ardor shortly faced his son with a toothy smile before looking forwards again.

"You will see."

* * *

"Ah, you're back! So? I take it you chased off the intruder? But... what's with that swimmer?"

Ardor threw the dead leaf-eater off his back and gave his mate a wide smile. It was only in times like these, when the Bright Circle hang low in the sky and provided a warm lighting, that he truly acknowledged her beauty. She had a warm, dark green coloring, despite all of her fights no visible scars on her skin and there was a certain tenderness in her eyes he had never before found in a female. Apart from her looks, she was a skilled hunter, strong fighter and an as much loyal as loving companion.

He had indeed found his significant other for life, Ardor affirmed to himself once more.

"It's a gift. And no, not really..."

She looked at him with an unreadable expression, already expecting some trouble on this peaceful evening, but Ardor soon continued.

"You know, dear, I am quite shocked you don't remember that little biter's scent, I must say. Look who I found!"

Having said that, Ardor stepped to the side and revealed his companion, who had been standing behind his massive form.

"Chaser?! Is that you?" The female roared out in utmost excitement and joy.

She immediately jumped up, ran towards her son and nuzzled him dearly.

"Herba, please! I'm not a little biter anymore!" Chaser protested under the loving nuzzles and licks of his mother.

But she would have none of it. Her son had it his way when he decided to strike off on his own in spite of his young age, but now she would have hers. After quite some time, she finally stepped back and eyed him for a bit while tilting her head slightly. Only now, she realized something.

"Since when are you calling me by my...? Oh, _you_ did that, didn't you?!"

Immediately after, she smacked Ardor's flank with her tail. It was a playful, but still powerful enough hit to make him gasp in pain.

"You deserved that! Just because he's living by himself now, doesn't mean he's not our son anymore!"

Ardor gave her an apologetic look.

"Of course not, dear! But wouldn't you agree it's good for him to learn these things?"

She wanted to respond with a stern look, but didn't manage to do so. He was right after all. At least in some way. And she knew he cared just as much about their son as she did. So instead, she gave him a loving nuzzle as well.

But the happy reunion should soon be interrupted by two other sharpteeth.

"Mommy?"

"Who is that?"

Chaser jerked back at these sudden voices from behind his mother. They both belonged to children, and none of his parents seemed to mind these intruders.

 _But... But... that means..._

"You asked if something's changed... This is it. Son? I want you to meet your brother and sister." Ardor said with a smile.

The younglings came closer, positioned themselves between their mother's feet and stared at the sharptooth that was supposed to be their brother. They had heard from their parents that they had an older brother, but also that he had long since struck off on his own. But now he was back. And he was standing right in front of them.

"Go on, he won't bite you." Herba encouraged her children.

Following that, the two little sharpteeth walked up towards Chaser and began curiously sniffing at him. He bowed down his head, took great care in remembering their scents, too, and let out some friendly growls towards them, a gesture they instantly repeated. He was still completely overwhelmed by all this. A friendly visit turned out to be such a massively joyful event.

He found that he had never felt so excited and happy in his whole life.

The children certainly seemed to feel this way. Soon after that careful greeting, they dropped all their fear, went ahead and climbed on Chaser's tail onto his back and jumped up and down in joy.

"Brother!"

"Chaser! It really is you!"

He had to smile even more. A few moments later, he lowered his body, let the two younglings slide down his tail again and took a good look at them. It was only now that he noticed something quite fascinating and strange. His brother had his mother's distinctive, dark green colors and seemed to wear them with all of his pride, almost looking like a tiny version of himself, but his sister had dark red skin with a tone of rose. He wondered how this could have possibly happened, given that his parents looked completely different of course.

Herba noticed Chaser's inquisitive look at his sister, so she spoke up.

"I know, my son, I couldn't believe it either. She looks just like my mother did... I have never seen this happen before but... I'm glad it did!"

Chaser gave his mother a happy nod at that revelation and turned his attention back to the children.

"Well, what are you little biters called?"

The younglings let out some annoyed growls at that question. It seemed like even at their young age they already despised being called 'little', especially the male, but they still responded to their brother's question with unchanged emotions.

"I'm Red Claw." The female answered calmly.

"Sharptooth!" The male followed, a little more excitedly.

"Sharptooth?" Chaser asked with a surprised look on his face.

"It was his own choice. We called him Rex but as soon as he learned to speak, he wanted a more 'fearsome' name." His father answered and laughed heartily.

"Well, I'm sure you will soon grow into a big, scary sharptooth, Sharptooth." Chaser mocked his little brother.

But Rex took that as a compliment, took a deep breath and...

...let out some squawky roars. He had certainly vastly overestimated the true power of his voice. Now the whole family had to laugh in unison, as he retreated behind his mother in embarrassment.

After everyone had calmed down again, Ardor moved up to Chaser.

"We have so much catching up to do. It's been ages! And also, I want to see what you've learned! There should still be some threehorns around... So, would you like to join me on a little evening hunt? "

"I'd love to!" Chaser affirmed. "Just like old times, huh?"

"Just like old times." His father repeated.

They were just about to head off when Herba raised her voice once more.

"Why would you hunt the threehorns again? We went after them three times in a row... You should wait a few more days. Besides, Chaser has brought us a swimmer. Remember, we eat to live, not live to eat."

Ardor stopped instantly, turned his head around to look at her and flashed a smirk.

"I don't plan on eating one of them. Come on, dear, let your boys have some fun. There's plenty of them! I'm sure they won't even notice one more horn-face gone."

It took her quite some time to make up her mind about this topic. Sure, leaf-eaters were food but she always thought of them as living beings, too, which meant that, albeit she had no problems killing them, certain herds just deserved to be left alone for a few days after an attack. It was her personal code of hunting. Truth be told, there was nothing empathic about it. It was more like thinking ahead. A herd that's been attacked too often would most likely leave for good and if there was no other source of food, the sharptooth family would have to shift their territory. Not exactly an easy task when there were children involved.

And the threehorn herd in question actually _was_ the only one around right now. There were a few clubtails not too far away as well, but the family never deemed them worth the hassle of taking them down. Far too risky, far too little reward. Not to mention they didn't taste all that good.

"Oh alright! But take care of yourselves!" She finally concluded and turned around to the children.

But of course, the little biters wanted to see their brother in action for the first time, so they both made everyone aware of themselves with a series of growls and moved forward.

"What about us?"

"Yeah! We want to see Chaser kill some horn-faces, too!" Rex followed after his sister's question.

"Absolutely not! It's almost sleeping time, so you two will be good little sharpteeth and stay here with your mother. You can watch your brother tomorrow." Ardor firmly rejected the siblings' plea.

Red Claw and Rex answered with another series of angry grumbles and retreated again. Only when Chaser and Ardor were completely sure the children would not come after them, they turned around as well and left the scene.

* * *

"... and then I followed the setting Bright Circle on each evening. That's how I found back home. It took me a long time but it worked out."

"Impressive." Ardor praised his son. "You remembered the way after all those seasons. But why did you never claim a territory? Or courted a nice female? You're getting old enough now."

"I don't know. Always felt like I'm not ready for this. I mean, I find it exciting to discover new lands and the best way to do that is to do it alone. I'm sure I'll have enough time for those... other things... once I grow tired of that. And also, I am called Chaser, am I not? I chase after the unknown. But it's certainly good to be back home... Everything is so familiar here. The scents, the food, the water... You know, the more I followed the rising Bright Circle, the stranger the lands became. I saw even bigger longnecks than those that live here, I saw clubtails with spiked tails, and I saw sharpteeth... with fuzz."

"What?" Ardor questioned in massive surprise, immediately afterwards shortly breaking out in laughter. "Hmhm. Fuzzy sharpteeth. I see you haven't lost your sense of hu..."

He went silent in an instant, as his nose picked up multiple scents.

"Threehorns. We're close." He continued, giving Chaser an expecting look. "You remember why else you're called Chaser?"

"I do." Chaser responded with a wide smile.

The two sharpteeth lowered their heads and began the stalk. They had already agreed on taking out an elder, as a prideful threehorn herd would probably not support an old member with all their strength. Also, to fight an experienced threehorn and kill it was an achievement every sharptooth was very much looking forward to. This was one of the few 'trophies' Chaser was missing in his 'gallery', even though he was not yet fully grown, which quite frankly spoke for itself.

The scents grew stronger and they soon had a visual on the leaf-eaters. The threehorns of all ages and sizes were gathered around three longneck-lengths away from the two sharpteeth.

However, there was something extremely odd here, Ardor noted to himself.

 _Where are the others? More than half of them are missing! Did they hear us coming? No, impossible. Why would these stay here, then? Sap-suckers are stupid, but not THAT stupid. And... these here are mostly females and children... Where are all the males? That elder is the only one.  
_

He simply dismissed his cogitations and moved closer to Chaser. He decided to turn this into a little test.

"Alright, there they are. All suitable targets. Which one do you pick?"

Chaser eyed the 15 threehorns with utmost care, analyzing and sizing up every single one of them. He locked on to a particular specimen, quickly sniffed the air a few times and spoke up again.

"The big one. He is old, experienced, still strong... and yet weak enough to kill. Look at the way his back sags and how his horns have slight cracks. He is sick, suffers from the Shrinking Bone Disease. I will let him attack me, evade, then search for an opportunity to crush his open back. One good strike should do."

"Hmm... Interesting choice, precisely analyzed... I have to admit, I underestimated you, son. I take it you want to handle this yourself?"

"I'd consider it an honor!" Chaser stated firmly.

"Very well, he'll be all yours once we've scared the others off. Let's go."

Father and son moved in again. Now, however, they were not in a stalking pose anymore. They actually wanted to be seen.

It didn't take much longer for that to happen. As soon as one of the threehorns saw the sharpteeth, the leaf-eater bellowed out the usual alarm call. Following that, 14 of them turned around and ran off, leaving only one single hapless member of their herd standing there. The elder, Chaser's target. This threehorn didn't even try to run away. It just stood there, all four of its feet planted firmly on the ground and its three dangerous horns lowered. It looked like the elder was more than keen on giving the sharpteeth a fight to the death.

Exactly what they were looking forward to, especially a certain ambitious teen two-footer. A real challenge, at last. He didn't consider killing the swimmer he had brought as a gift that, but a threehorn was a different case. So he broke away from his father's side and closed the distance on the elder. When he was standing around three threehorn-lengths away from it, he started circling his target in search for any possible opening.

However, the threehorn did not give him any. He just turned on his spot, always having his front and horns pointed at the sharptooth.

So Chaser decided to provoke it, force the threehorn to do something. He charged directly at it, expecting a counterattack with a mistake he could exploit.

 **Roar!**

But the elder didn't react to it. Not even to the loud roar almost right in his face. He still had his horns lowered and held his ground. It was highly unusual for a threehorn to do that, especially in this situation. He was fighting for his life after all.

Chaser was forced to abort his attack, came to a halt and retreated again. He grew increasingly annoyed but also nervous at this. He had no doubts he could kill that stubborn leaf-eater, but wondered how exactly he could do that now. Even more so, he wondered why this stupid threehorn just wouldn't counterattack. His annoyance soon turned into sheer anger. If there was one thing he had always despised, it was being played for a fool. And this threehorn certainly was doing that right now.

 _Playing for time, huh? That's your tactic? That's it?! You think I'm not worth a fight?! You dare to mock me?!  
_

Chaser started another charge. But this time, he wouldn't play by the rules. If there even was anything like a 'code' in fighting, he didn't care. His father was watching him and expecting an easy kill. He would not disappoint his father.

The same sight greeted him. The threehorn stood there with its horns lowered. Chaser, however, would have none of those silly games anymore. No, he would use his smaller size and lighter weight for his own advantage. In contrary to a full-grown two-footer, he had speed and agility still going for him. All of this while retaining a lot of weight and raw power in comparison to other, smaller sharpteeth.

He ran in a zigzag pattern, feinted to attack the threehorn's right side but went for the left instead. This caused the threehorn to take a step back in surprise and finally counterattack.

The mistake.

Chaser evaded the swing of the horned frill, leapt to the side and reached out with his little arm.

 **Slice!**

The painful scream of the leaf-eater confirmed that the dirty strike had worked. Instead of an eye, loads of blood and some other fluids filled the elder's right socket and ran down from it. And yet, this didn't seem to bother him even remotely. He just faced the sharptooth again in a defensive position and stared directly at it.

And that was when Chaser saw it. The threehorn was wearing the slightest of smiles on its bleeding face.

He was fuming inside. Not only did the threehorn make this fight unusually hard for him, as he couldn't use his quick reflexes and strong bite for his advantage, but the elder also obviously enjoyed stalling and making fun of him. Never before in a fight had he been taunted like this by a leaf-eater. He would not let such an insult go unpunished.

 _You think this is funny?! You think I'm a joke?!_

With all his power, Chaser exploded into another charge. The ground trembled under the sheer power of his weight and anger, and his heartbeat reached almost worrying levels. He was determined make this threehorn experience a death beyond painful.

In the time away from home, he had often observed how fastbiters fought. What those sharpteeth lacked in raw strength, weight and bite force, they more than made up for with extreme agility, the highly fatal killing claw on each foot and their ability to precisely strike their target's weak points. He had always belittled that, thought of their technique as stupid and complicated. But now he didn't. Not anymore. Even though a two-footer was not made for this style of fighting, he wanted to at least try it out once.

So he closed the distance on the threehorn until he could've almost touched the horns. However, it should not come to that. He swung his tail to the side and his whole body with it. The threehorn had no time to react, had probably never seen this type of attack coming from a two-footer. Chaser had gone for its blind side, his powerful legs already prepared for a jump.

 **Crack!**

The disgusting sound of cracking bones filled out the whole scenery. Even Ardor was able to hear it, and he was still standing at the same position, around two longneck-lengths away from the combatants. That was not what made him smile in the end though. What made him smile was that his son had single-handedly managed to bring down a fully grown, experienced threehorn male.

But his smile soon disappeared, as he could see Chaser standing in front of the dying threehorn's face, unmoving.

 _What are you doing? Finish it! Why are you...? No... Chaser... please... don't tell me you are letting him suffer!_

He stood there in shock, asking himself what motivated his son to show this sadistic behavior all of a sudden.

The answer to that question was much clearer to Chaser, because he was actually able to hear the threehorn's 'last words'. He was pretty sure leaf-eaters were not able to talk, but also remembered how his mother had often warned him to never underestimate them, to always listen in on his targets. In this situation, he chose her word over his own. However, even if Chaser had been able to speak leaf-eater, the sounds would have remained the same. Because the threehorn did not utter anything in a language. Those were not words coming out of its mouth.

It was laughter. Insane laughter of a dying threehorn. Laughter of victory, taunting Chaser even further in these last breaths.

For a second, he didn't know what to do anymore. All feelings of rage were gone. What remained was emptiness... and fear. Immense fear. He was frightened to the core by this threehorn, which laughed him in the face in its last moments.

But just as quickly as those new feelings came, they were gone, too.

He snapped out of his trance, moved over to the elder and bit down on its neck, ripping its throat out. The laughter changed into the usual, nasty gurgling sounds. But after a few more seconds, they were gone as well.

All that remained was silenced. Dead silence.

It was only broken when Ardor came closer and joined Chaser's side. He wanted to let his son know how proud he was, how impressive his progress really was. But instead, he was at a loss for words. He could almost feel the emotional turmoil Chaser was going through. But what was it that had prevented his son from killing the threehorn outright?

As if Chaser had read his father's thoughts, he suddenly spoke up.

"He... laughed... He was dying and he laughed in my face..."

Ardor's eyes widened at that. While observing this fight, he had of course noticed all the oddities. He had noticed how the threehorn tried to just buy itself some time. The question was, time for what? He thought the reason for the way the threehorn behaved was that the elder had not taken Chaser seriously. But hearing his son tell the whole story made something turn inside of him.

Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong.

 **Roar!**

Chaser and Ardor swung their heads around, facing the way they had come from. It was at that moment, when the distant roar, a desperate cry for support, reached both of their ears that they came to an understanding.

They had made a grave mistake coming here.

"No! Mother!"

"Dear! Children!"

They both screamed in unison and charged back home, hoping they could still be of help. Hoping they could somehow avert a disaster. They were running so fast that the ground below them cracked open under their power and weight. And yet, with every step taken, the chances were getting slimmer and slimmer. This did not matter to the sharpteeth though. The rush of adrenaline through their bodies clouded their senses. All they could think of right now was helping three loved ones.

The trip to their hunting ground had taken Ardor and Chaser quite a long time, but the way back seemed to be as short as a ground fuzzy's tail in comparison to a longneck's. They almost flew across the lands in their despair. They were positive they would still be there in time. Surely there was still hope. There must have been.

But as the sharpteeth finally broke through the underbrush and into the clearing that marked their home, the harsh truth of reality caught up with them. Both of them stopped at once, their eyes widened at the sight.

Dead bodies. The carcass of the swimmer Chaser had brought as a gift and five corpses of male threehorns, each of them accurately ripped to pieces. This was the work of a highly skilled killer and besides Chaser and Ardor, there was only one other possible suspect. For just a split second, they wanted to loosen up, wanted to dismiss reality once more.

But then they simultaneously laid eyes on another body amidst the leaf-eater corpses, almost buried under them. Although the Bright Circle had already disappeared, this body's colors were still clearly visible under the Night Circle's cold embrace.

Dark green, heavily tainted with blood and injuries. It was a sharptooth. It was a two-footer. It was a female and it was a mother.

Chaser was petrified, frozen in his tracks. The whole world around him seemed to pause and even his heart seemed to have stopped beating. There were too many emotions inside of him, and they were fighting a fierce battle.

Ardor, too, was overwhelmed in the worst way possible. But his longstanding experience granted him to control himself a little more effectively than his son could. He knew that just standing here would solve nothing. So he broke away from his son's side and slowly moved towards his prone mate. At this point, he had already lost all hope. He just wanted to confirm her death.

But then, just as he came to a stop right in front of her body, he noticed the slightest of movements from her. Herba was still breathing. For just a second, he had hope again. Hope, that his beloved mate would survive this. He immediately began to shove the dead threehorns away from her.

"Don't... It's... no use..."

Her broken voice felt like it penetrated his heart and destroyed all his will to live. What was she talking about? She was badly wounded, sure, but those injuries would heal. Everything would be fine again.

"Don't speak... Save your energy, dear. It's over now. You will be alright."

"No... You... don't understand..." Came her response.

He wanted to inquire why she was so negative about this but when he looked down her body, he almost fainted.

Both of her legs were broken, deliberately crushed at the ankles and shins. There was no way she would ever walk again. No way she would ever hunt with her family once more. This was the end.

"There were... too many. Threehorns... Clubtails... They went... after our children. I... failed... I... could not... stop them. Rex... Red Claw... I could... not protect them..."

By now, Chaser had come closer as well. He had tears flowing down his face. His siblings, who he had basically just met, were gone and he knew exactly what his mother's fate would be. A sharptooth unable to walk was a dead sharptooth.

"I'm... so sorry... my son. All I wanted was... to see you and... your siblings grow up... together."

The entire time, Ardor had been able to control himself as best as he could. But as soon as Herba continued, and her tender eyes looked over at him, he broke out in tears as well.

"Dear...? You know... what to do now... don't you?"

Yes, he knew indeed what to do now. He had to put an end to her misery. At least she would have an honorable death at his teeth. Otherwise, she would slowly and painfully suffer to death in the mud between those leaf-eaters. The look he gave his son afterwards spoke more than a thousand words.

And Chaser understood every single bit of it. One last time, he walked up to his loving mother and gave her one last, loving nuzzle. Following that, and with utmost trepidation, he turned around and walked off. When he reached a safe distance, the sound of a snapping jaw and crunching bones greeted his ears. He didn't even flinch at that. This was all just too much to handle for him.

But then he noticed something else out of the corner of his eye.

Another dead body in the mud, colored in red and rose, almost crushed to a pulp of blood and innards. From the little that remained of it, he could see that the small sharptooth had blood on its claws and teeth. Despite being nothing more than a youngling, his sister had fought until the bitter end against enemies she could never have bested.

Right at this moment, Chaser finally snapped.

 **Roar!**

The ear-shattering roar he let out into the night made the ground below him tremble in terror. Multiple things had just died inside of him, things he would never be able to replace. His mother, his sister... and his brother, whose corpse probably lay beneath one of the slain threehorns.

He didn't even notice that his father joined his side soon after.

Ardor saw Red Claw's body, too, saw how she must have bravely fought against the aggressors, but he was unable to mount any emotional response. By having been forced to kill his mate, the female he had spent so much time with, he had already lost his last feelings. He was an empty shell. The deaths of his youngest children were merely another two stings in a dead heart.

He would not let it end like this. He was still able to do something, he figured.

"Their scents are still strong... We will find them." He spoke up in a deep, cold voice.

"They shall fall. Every single one of them." Chaser responded with a just as emotionless tone.

* * *

The two sharpteeth quickly found what they had been looking for. They would never forget their stenches. They were positive these scents would haunt them for all their life, constantly reminding them of what they had lost. But they didn't care about that. They only cared about one thing.

Revenge. To avenge the death of their loved ones.

Their targets were standing only around three longneck-lengths away. 20 threehorns, 12 of them children, and five clubtails. Neither Chaser nor Ardor were able to understand why the two species suddenly decided to work together. For all they knew, threehorns hated everything that did not have three horns and clubtails hated everything that did not possess a tail with a club on its tip.

However, that didn't matter anymore, either. They would all pay for what they had done.

The leaf-eaters had not noticed the two-footers yet. It seemed like they were too busy mourning their own losses but even more so celebrating their big victory. No leaf-eater herd had ever managed to bring down almost an entire sharptooth family. Especially not joined forces with another herd. But these leaf-eaters had a big flaw in their plan. They had probably not expected another two-footer to return to his family.

Father and son gave each other one final nod. From now on, no words would be spoken anymore.

This conversation would be held with teeth and claws.

They began their charge and soon after, the leaf-eater alarm call followed. But the sharpteeth had the element of surprise on their side, while the leaf-eaters were all scattered.

 **Roar!**

The first victim didn't even know what hit it. It was one of the clubtails, which had just enough time to turn around to the attacking two-footers and raise its tail. It never even got the chance to defend itself against the deadly duo. Ardor slammed full-force into its side, knocking the heavily armored leaf-eater on its back, and Chaser almost ripped its head off with the bite to its throat that followed.

The first kill. The bloodbath had started.

While the leaf-eaters panicked instantly, the sharpteeth had it all planned out. They kept as calm as the light breeze in this dark night. They didn't act as two individuals but rather as one. One big, nasty killer. An extremely angry killer, not lusting for food but for blood. Only for blood. And this symbiotic killer would not stop until he had tasted the blood of every single one of those that had helped in destroying his family.

The disadvantage of such a fearsome symbiosis was that such a killer often enough thought of himself as untouchable. But even he would eventually make mistakes. Ardor learned that the hard way, as his second target, a female threehorn, evaded his bite and swung her horns at him. She made contact directly above his left eye. The sudden and unexpected outburst of pain caused him to jerk back, but the threehorn seized this opportunity and leaned forward. This caused Ardor to slice himself open on her horns. His wound extended from above his socket down over his eye, missing his iris by a mere fraction, and to the right claw on his left forelimb.

However, this injury in combination with the screams all around only made him even more furious. He would let those sap-suckers experience what it had been like for himself and for his mate. Mostly for her. Mostly for the calm female, who had always tried to 'care' for their food.

So he immediately jumped forwards again, bit down on one of the female's horns and suddenly twisted his head.

 **Crack!**

The threehorn went limp and dropped to the ground, and Ardor locked on to his next target.

As the time went by, the battlefield grew wetter and wetter with blood. The children were ripped apart or simply squashed like buzzers by the two-footers, and the adults almost in the same manner. With each kill, the cries for help became quieter. And finally, only one leaf-eater was left. A big clubtail male.

Ardor and Chaser moved in on him together from two sides, enjoying how he was shaking with fear and swinging his tail around in every direction in a desperate attempt to scare them off.

They could only laugh at that. As soon as he saw an opening, Ardor once again used his weight and strength to ram the clubtail with all his might and threw him on his back. Chaser was already preparing his razor-sharp teeth for the killing blow, but Ardor firmly shook his head.

Chaser eyed his father, wondering if he had suddenly decided to spare this one.

His theory, however, should be denied, as Ardor moved a bit closer to the clubtail, sniffed at and eyed it. He remembered this one's scent. It was the exact same scent he had found on Herba and around his daughter. And also, this male had little scratches and bite marks on his front legs. This clubtail was the one who had crippled his mate and thus forced him to kill her, and who had crushed his little daughter. He lowered his face close to the leaf-eater's, and his own ice cold gaze was retorted with a horrified and fearful one.

"This... is for Herba and Red Claw!"

Following that, he raised his foot and stepped on the leaf-eater's head, ever so slightly increasing the weight he put on it, enjoying every single moment of his victim's agony, until...

 **Crunch! Crack! Squash!**

...the clubtail's painful cries suddenly stopped. No more screams, no more deaths. All was still.

Ardor took a deep breath and walked up to his son. Their eyes met. It was obvious to each of them that the respective other was anything but happy, but there was a certain satisfaction they shared. They were feeling good.

And yet, there was also a lot of uncertainty.

"What do we do now?" Chaser asked his father the fateful question.

"We will live on... and at the same time, we will not."

Chaser tilted his head, asking himself what his father had meant by that.

Ardor took a quick look at his extensive, fresh injury and the blood red claw on his left arm before speaking up again.

"Tell me, my son, do you believe in fate?"

* * *

 **The present:**

"...and so my father took on my sister's name, while I chose to continue my brother's legacy." Chaser finished his dark story.

Specter didn't know what to respond to that. This story had certainly roused a lot of his own emotions. He was sad, angry, thoughtful and calm at the same time. And he didn't know where to direct those emotions. He somehow wanted to hate those leaf-eaters, but he also somehow wanted to hate Chaser's father.

"Thanks... for telling me." He finally responded. "I didn't know... I'm sorry, I should not have asked for that."

"You asked me if I believed in fate. I do. And now, I finally want an answer. Will you help me?"

He just wanted to give Chaser that answer when he saw something in the distance. Even his sharp eyes wouldn't let him make out any details, but it was more than enough to distinguish the species.

It was a lone longneck. And given how it moved, it was definitely heavily injured.

Chaser noticed Specter's inquisitive look and switched his attention over there as well. He immediately jumped up.

"Oh... shit."

Specter, too, rose back on his feet and looked at the two-footer.

"Didn't you say a _herd_ will pass through here?"

"I did." Chaser confirmed, with quite a lot of unsureness in his otherwise so firm voice.

"Hmm... Well... Guess I will just ask that longneck what happened."

Having said that, Specter sprinted off towards the leaf-eater without even asking his new leader for his approval. But Chaser kept his position in silence for now. This was the first time since quite a long time that something did not work out like he had planned.

 _Not good... not good at all. And he still hasn't answered me... Wait... Ask the longneck?! Argh! Damn fastbiters! Always the same problems with them! I think he just needs to see why I want his help._

Having finally made up his mind, Chaser followed after Specter towards the longneck.

* * *

 **So, this is a little flashback into Chaser's, or Sharptooth's, dark history.**

 **I know, I previously said I won't be posting anything until November, but I managed to allocate a few evenings for my writing in the end. I must admit though, I didn't expect this chapter to be this long. However, my statement still stands. I have a lot to do right now, and I definitely need the next two weeks for some other, more "serious" things. ;)**

 **In any event, I hope you like this installment and as always:**

 **Take care, and until next time!**

 _ **Revised**_


	13. Chapter 12: A Tale of Darkness

**Chapter 12: A Tale of Darkness  
**

 _ **"Know when fairy tales cease to be tales? When people start believing in them." - Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Witcher III: The Wild Hunt  
**_

 _Alright... I should be... safe now..._

As she was dragging herself across the empty lands, she didn't even pay her extensive wounds too much heed. Her thoughts still mostly rested with the herd, which she had lost earlier on this very day. Never would she forget how the peaceful longnecks vanished one after the other. Never would she forget the uncountable sharpteeth swarming her family and friends. Even the six adults in her herd, including herself, had never stood a chance against such an onslaught. Neither had her little children.

But even in her grief, she couldn't help but feel curious. It was quite clear to her that those sharpteeth had spared her for some reason. A reason she could not understand, as they seemed to not have killed for food. That didn't mean they had left her untouched, however. She had lost all feelings in her tail already and had great problems keeping her head raised up high. Her big hind legs were covered in wounds and so were her front legs, her whole body and her neck. She was indeed in a lot of pain.

But at least she was still breathing, she figured. There would be a way to stay alive. She would get through this. Somehow.

 _Maybe... if I... find another herd... Other longnecks... Surely, they would..._

 **Grrrwl...**

The moment this deep, soft growl reached her ears, she froze in her tracks with wide eyes. It was not an aggressive sound, but she knew all too well to which kind of dinosaur it belonged to.

 _Oh no... no... please... not... like this..._

She swung her head around to her left and stared directly into a pair of yellow eyes. The eyes of what looked a lot like a fastbiter. Normally, that sight would not have unnerved her in the slightest. A lone fastbiter? One kick from her powerful legs and most of its bones were shattered, and she was confident this sharptooth knew that, too. Adult longnecks of her kind had always been avoided by those killers. Even two-footers, the most fearsome and brutal of all sharpteeth, mostly kept away from them. Only her children she had to always be vigilant about, as they provided an easy meal for any kind of sharptooth. However, this fastbiter was pretty big for its kind, in fact the biggest she had ever seen, and given the extremely aggressive nature of fastbiters combined with her current state, it was very likely it would not be afraid to attack her.

And then there was this fuzz covering its body. It seemed like the killers of her family had changed their minds about letting her alive. Running away was not an option, she was too exhausted, too heavily injured and even in her best shape way too slow anyway. She was nowhere near able to fight like this, either. And talking to a sharptooth? Not really. They were not able to talk, after all. Even if they were, what good would it do? It wasn't like there was much going on behind their piercing eyes and between their sensitive ears.

In spite of her state, however, she immediately tried to raise her tail and go into a defensive position.

But she couldn't. She was too weak. She wasn't even able to lift one of her legs without collapsing, let alone her enormous neck or tail. It seemed like those sharpteeth had gone precisely for the only parts of her body with which she would've been able to defend herself. She was totally defenseless now.

So she just closed her eyes and lowered her head even further in anticipation of her death. She hoped this fastbiter would make it at least a quick one, however unlikely that was.

The sharptooth could be heard wandering around her for a bit, stalking, looking for an opportunity to brutally take her life away, the distinctive sound of its ghastly killing claws touching the ground with every soft step, until it suddenly came to a stop right in front of her. This was the moment. This was her end.

 _Wait... it has its claws on the...?_

 **"Relax. I won't hurt you."**

Before she could even finish her thoughts, her eyes sprang open again.

 _Did that fastbiter just...?!_

"You... can... talk?!" She asked with all the surprise she could still express in her broken voice.

It was only now that she mustered the sharptooth in more detail. Now that she had heard its deep voice, she knew it was a male. And he had his tail lowered and forelimbs held close to his body. The same went for the deadly claws on his feet, both of those weapons still firmly planted on the ground. His stance was completely non-aggressive.

But if he didn't plan on killing her, what _did_ he want?

Her question should soon be answered, as the fastbiter laid down on his haunches right in front of her gargantuan, standing form and gestured for her to do the same. He was big for a fastbiter, sure, but still tiny in comparison to a full-grown longneck like herself. If she wanted to, she could have easily crushed him right now. But something was holding her back. She could feel another something urging her to just stomp him and be done with it, but at the same time her heart told her to remain calm, despite her forlorn situation.

In the end, she accepted his 'invitation' and laid down as well.

 **"What's your name?"** The fastbiter asked calmly.

"Arga. And... what's...?" She hesitated asking for his name. Since when did sharpteeth have names, anyway?

 **"Specter."** He just answered, as if he were aware of what she was thinking. **"Nice to meet you, Arga."**

She was taken aback by his behavior and the friendly, almost soothing tone in his voice. Not even in her most unusual sleep stories had she ever imagined anything like that. She would have liked telling her family about this encounter though. A speaking, friendly sharptooth? She was sure that her mate would have loved to ask him some questions, to be the first leaf-eater ever to hear a sharptooth's story. He had been an intelligent and strong longneck, had never been afraid of sharpteeth, after all. But it was too late for that now. Only she herself was left. Still, she wondered why the fastbiter would possibly act like that.

To Specter on the other hand, this was quite clear.

 _She's an Argentinosaurus, if I'm not mistaken... Must be around seven meters tall and probably more than 70 tons heavy... Damn! One stomp or kick and I'm a bloody pulp. Have to be cautious here... Just need to know what's going on...  
_

 **"What happened to you? Who did this?"** He finally asked.

It took Arga quite some time to give her answer. Just thinking about this made all the horrifying images return to her inner eye.

"My herd... We were... attacked... Sharpteeth... So many of them..."

It pained Specter to just interrogate her like that. He didn't even want to imagine how that must have been like, seeing her whole family and friends perish at the claws and teeth of hungry sharpteeth, but since this longneck was the sole survivor, she was his best bet for information right now. So he let her continue.

"Everyone is dead... my friends... my mate... my children... Those sharpteeth... they didn't even... kill them to... eat them... And... I... don't know why... but... they left me alive... on purpose... I think."

Specter didn't show the massive discomfort he felt after hearing this. So the killers of her herd were not hungry. But why else would those sharpteeth carry out a massacre against some peaceful longnecks, he asked himself. And even more so, just what kinds of sharpteeth would be capable of doing that? Given the sheer size of Arga alone, this certainly wasn't a simple pack of fastbiters' doing.

 **"I'm sorry to hear that... Listen, I know this must be painful but... I need you to describe them for me. What did those sharpteeth look like?"**

The gaze Arga gave him made something in Specter's stomach turn. He already anticipated that he had pushed it too far with that question.

"Some... of them, a lot... like... _you_."

Instead of anger, it was overwhelming sadness in her answer. It was the kind of sadness that could infect the listener. But Arga, even in her agony, wanted to be a bit more precise.

"But... now that I see you... up close... They were not fastbiters... No... They were..."

The sound of crashing footsteps interrupted her and made her go silent in an instant. It didn't take much longer for a massive dark green two-footer to appear behind Specter. And it was slowly coming closer. Seeing how he didn't seem to mind that little 'detail', Arga tried to remain calm about this as well.

"Is that... a friend of yours?"

Specter didn't respond to that outright. It would take a lot for him to consider Chaser a friend. For now, the two-footer was purely something else to him. Although he frowned slightly, calling him that out loud for the first time.

 **"No. He's my leader..."**

Until Chaser came to a halt right behind him, no more words were exchanged between predator and prey. He seemed to calmly analyze the whole scene, taking in every single scent, every little detail, and Specter could almost feel his cold, one-eyed gaze looking down on him in the end.

And then the leader spoke up.

"Kill her."

Specter immediately jumped up with wide eyes and stared at Chaser, his heartbeat already accelerating to higher levels.

"What?! But... why?"

"Because I'm telling you to!" Came the harsh and extremely annoyed answer from the two-footer.

As Specter slowly turned around to Arga again, he could see great amounts of confusion but just as much acceptance in her half-closed, weary eyes.

 **"Arga... I... He..."**

But she didn't even need Specter's translation anymore. The short exchange of growls between the two sharpteeth couldn't have had a clearer meaning. And neither the black fastbiter's reaction.

"He wants you to... kill me, doesn't he?"

He just gave her a sad nod as response. Although he had fully accepted his path as a carnivore by now, this was the first time someone explicitly ordered him to kill someone he didn't want to kill by himself. It was the coldness in Chaser's voice, the lack of any empathy, which deeply horrified him. He wanted to just refuse, tell Chaser to do it himself, but disobeying his leader's commands would most likely grant him an even worse fate than Arga's.

Indeed, he had finally become what he had thoughts about becoming at one point in his past life. He was a primeval soldier now. In fact, even more than that. He was a sicario in the making, a raptor-assassin, not bound by a code of honor but to plain orders with no way to dismiss them.

And this was just another execution.

He couldn't decide, however, if he actually disliked it this way. He had never been good in strictly following orders, true, he was a free spirit and valued the freedom to do what he pleased to do above everything else, but even he couldn't deny that following simple orders from a far more experienced hunter might actually help him to stay alive much longer in this time. Still, he wouldn't have been himself if he would not have felt his conscience nagging him with some serious doubts.

And Arga seemed to notice that.

"Are you... feeling bad about this?" She asked him in curious surprise.

 **"Of course I am! You don't deserve this... you can't even fight back... and I'm not hungry, either."**

He was lying with the last statement and he knew that. He actually was pretty hungry right now, having eaten only four eggs and a small spiketail on the last day, but by far not hungry enough to kill a friendly leaf-eater in cold blood, a leaf-eater he just had a conversation with as well, even though the smell of her blood and sight of her wounds made his mouth water heavily.

Arga let out a slightly amused laugh before speaking up again.

"Hey... I'd rather... be killed by you... than by someone... who doesn't care. I... don't know why you are but... don't be sad about this. You're doing me... a favor. Maybe now... I can finally return... to my family..."

Having said that, she slowly laid out her neck in front of the fastbiter. She was used to fighting until her last breath, that was the only way a longneck survived until it reached an age and size such as hers, and truth be told, her instincts pressed her to just use her massive body to crush at least one of the two sharpteeth, but she refused to act like that. And that for a very good reason. The little conversation with this sharptooth had really opened her eyes, she finally understood that now. All her thoughts about staying alive and living on were gone now. She realized it was desperation that had driven her. A desolate course. She didn't even have the strength to stand up anymore, and her wounds would soon become infected. It would be a slow and painful death.

But with this fastbiter here, she had been given a choice. A choice she had just made.

Also, and this was the sole reason why she decided to not kill at least one of the sharpteeth, there was another thing on her mind by now.

 _And maybe... you, Specter, might be doing me another favor... Maybe you might be granting me at least that... I hope you disgusting bastards had fun with what you did to my family... But oh, I'm having even more fun! I'm even thankful that you let me suffer and live this long. You know why? Because now I will keep those alive that will one day feast on YOU!_

She has never felt so satisfied with a thought such as this.

Specter took another quick look at the extensive injuries all over her body and gave her a final nod. Utilizing his minimal anatomic knowledge and the little training he had received so far, he decided to search for a big artery along her throat, already preparing his two massive sickle claws.

And then, barely visible on her thick skin, he found pulsating movement, a throbbing beat of life. This was his target. He just hoped the shock of that sudden strike would kill her quickly. Maybe he really was doing her a favor by ending her pain, he figured, but he would have liked to have been given a choice. But alas, it was Chaser who had made that choice for him.

He couldn't really explain why he sometimes had these outbursts of hesitation when it came to killing. He knew perfectly well that the longneck in front of him was suffering terribly and that she would die anyway, sooner or later. And being honest with himself, he would really rather be the one releasing her from her pain than letting Chaser do it. What he definitely understood now was why Littlefoot and the others had so often advised him to not use the leaf-eater language to actually talk to his prey, however 'noble' his intentions. Having been born as a highly social creature, it only came natural to him that every exchanged word strengthened a certain bond between him and his prey, despite him living the life of a predator now, despite still being a loner. It was just how his past self worked in terms of psyche.

But that was something he would simply have get used to.

 **"I hope you will find them. Wherever they are right now."** He finally said in a firm voice.

Subsequent to those words, wanting to spare her from any more suffering, Specter moved closer, raised his right leg while balancing on his left and kicked out.

 **Shluck!**

The sound of piercing flesh was followed by a fountain of lukewarm blood that shot right in his face and colored his whole body within moments in a crimson hue. He had hit his target with deadly precision once more, just like with the little spiketail.

But the outburst of pain in her throat was never really processed by Arga's senses. One last thought crossed her mind before everything around her went black.

 _So they do have a heart..._

And then all was still. The silence was only broken when Chaser moved closer to her corpse, eyed Specter's accurate handiwork and faced the blood-soaked fastbiter.

"Good. So you're not stupid."

Specter wanted to burst into endless rage about Chaser's apathy, but kept his calm. Mostly.

"Was this another one of your retarded tests?"

"No, this was a hunt." Chaser stated, completely ignoring Specter's disrespectful tone.

"This wasn't a hunt. This was murder." Specter made clear with noticeably suppressed anger in his voice.

"Call it as you wish." Chaser responded indifferently. "Now eat your fill. I have something to show you."

 _You cold-hearted son of a... Argh! I would kill for a cold beer and a smoke right now..._ Specter thought to himself, not in any shape or form sarcastically.

He let out a deep sigh, went over to Arga's big head and closed her still half-shut eyelids, like he had always done with his victims. Those that had deserved it in his eyes, that was. It happened almost intuitively by now. He made himself aware again that no matter how many lives he would still be about to end in his time, this gesture was something he would never forget. A final show of respect for a life taken was what would separate him from everyone else in this unforgiving world. It also didn't really matter if he would do it before or after ripping the flesh out of his prey. With Arga he did it now, with the little spiketail he had done immediately after. What mattered to him was that he remembered it.

But it was also his past hypocrisy he remembered. With his spear he had already killed two sharpteeth, a two-footer and another fastbiter, and he had never even thought about paying _them_ their last respects. It was at least that one fastbiter he had killed in cold blood, Falce, whom he should have done it to. But again, like with so many of his mistakes, it was too late to change that now.

After finally growing aware of everything around him again, he joined Chaser, who was already impatiently waiting at the longneck's abdominal region, and dug into his fresh kill. As always, no matter if leader or subordinate, it was the killer who would have the honor of the first bite.

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

Thud had to hold back an uneasy frown. The sight of the brown fastbiter approaching him, having his eyes firmly planted onto him with a grave face of his own, made him already expect another serious conversation. Right now, he was just asking himself about what topic that conversation would be held. Given what he had foolishly implied about the lost member and friend of this pack though, he could already guess it.

"Dear? Mind if you take over for a bit?" He inquired, still looking at Littlefoot, who was only about half a longneck-length away from him by now.

"Not at all." Swift responded. Of course she asked herself, too, what exactly was wrong all of a sudden but decided to not comment on it and instead let her mate and the leader of their hosts sort it out. She didn't even get to know the fastbiter who was supposedly the reason for all this trouble, so she would have surely just overcomplicated things with her opinion, she figured. Neither did Thud, true, but he was by far the most experienced sharptooth around here, so that more than made up for it.

Thud gave her a quick nuzzle and went off, while his mate turned her full attention to their little children. He only stopped when he stood face-to-face with Littlefoot, and a few moments of awkward silence followed.

"Seeker?" He then asked him in a respectful tone, already anticipating loads of earnest questions or maybe even an angry scolding coming from him.

"Thud." Littlefoot responded in the same manner. "I need to have another talk with you."

Thud didn't say anything in return. He gave Littlefoot a nod and, just like on the last day, followed him away from the other fastbiters. As he carefully eyed Littlefoot's posture and the way he was slightly looking at the ground, he couldn't help but feeling seriously concerned about him but also angry with himself. He had never imagined that precipitately mentioning this dark song he heard from around his own territory would have such an effect on the brown fastbiter. It pained him to see the otherwise so friendly, determined and great leader this torn.

And then Littlefoot finally stopped, took a deep breath and turned around.

"I would like you to sing that song you mentioned."

 _It really is about him again..._ Thud noted to himself, confusion, compassion, anger and annoyance alike in his thoughts.

"Seeker... I understand that you're concerned, but please, be..."

"No, Thud." Littlefoot interrupted him. "You can't possibly understand this. I thought he was a friend... I took him in, cared about him, related to him, let him join our pack. I told him my stories, all of my adventures and those of my friends... I let him know everything about me, about us... and I know almost nothing about him in return. Then, he just left without a single word, never to come back... And now, after all that's happened over the past days... after I'm finally seeing that all of this is connected somehow... All of his tricks and his behavior... I'm asking myself... Have I served a monster?"

That question struck Thud like a claw to his throat. After all, he knew just too well what it had been like to serve a monster. The difference was that he always knew what he had been doing, on which path he had wandered. It wasn't until Red Claw betrayed him and ordered him and his brother Screech to be killed that he had finally understood to what kind of destination that path would eventually lead.

Littlefoot on the other hand, in all his helpfulness and with his big heart, had most likely never seen this coming. He would never dare calling him naive, Thud reminded himself, but having such a great heart certainly was a grave weakness. The barely visible scar below the feathering on Littlefoot's neck was a testament to that. So now it seemed like someone else besides Calin had finally exploited that weakness.

However, to Thud, there was a serious logical fallacy here.

"I see... And how exactly do you think that could have happened? I don't know why I pushed that simple fact aside on the last day but Taunt told me that the fastbiter we're talking about was changed... Changed like you have been changed, once. So, say you're right and he really _is_ alive... Those few bits of their song I've heard are from before that. The fastbiters have only arrived lately but that song is from a cold time, several back even, I'd say, and we're slowly approaching the next already. Would you not agree that this doesn't really make sense?"

"Normally, I would." Littlefoot gave his dry answer. "But not in this case. He's an adult fastbiter, Thud. Adult fastbiters don't just appear out of nowhere. Especially not when they're as big as him. Even if he really changed into a sharptooth like I did, he still must have grown up somewhere. And I remember how he always said that he didn't belong here. So I'm guessing where he actually belongs is where that song comes from. Those 'Far Lands'. Where exactly are they, anyway?"

"They have many different names. Some call them Far Lands, some call them Outlands and some others call them something entirely different again. I myself have only heard of them from songs and stories when I was younger. A big earthshake there, many seasons ago, ripped everything apart and destroyed whole herds. Now they lie separated behind mountains and huge crevices. Where they are, I absolutely don't know."

"Yeah... earthshakes destroy a lot." Littlefoot muttered to himself in a sad monotone, but the asking look of Thud made his voice turn serious again. "Anyway, please just do me this favor, Thud. I don't care how horrible that song is, I just want to know about it."

Thud used the moment of contemplative silence to go over what was on his mind. The song was very distinctive in terms of wording, and the overall theme of it was something he wouldn't just forget. Even though he had only heard parts of it from quite some distance away while marking the borders of his pack's territory, his markings had been tainted with feelings of deep anger and sorrow on that night.

"Very well... I only know the ending of it, but I think that's more than enough."

He took a few deep breaths, but decided to keep his voice at talking volume. This part of the song really didn't deserve being sung loudly. It didn't deserve any praise. It only deserved to be forgotten.

 **We were seven hunters, a bond forged out of blood and death  
Sworn to prey together, to the day of our last breath**

 **We traveled far and wide, thought our journey would never end  
Yet we found what we could call home, a vast new land**

 **We settled there with time, thought we had finally found our place  
But came the cold season's embrace, one went missing without a trace**

 **A brother to two, a friend and leader to the rest  
When he came back, it should be our hardest test**

 **Because he brought an ally, someone so unlike us  
Neither fastbiter nor two-footer, a sharptooth with dark fuzz**

 **As strange as he was, we foolishly didn't care  
His honest friendliness, indeed something rare  
**

 **We were not afraid, surely he would never dare  
To harm those who took him in, a territory to share  
**

 **It were two shadows that doomed us, we had no time to prepare  
One of them our own, what followed was despair  
**

 **The eighth night came, six in their sleep were deceived  
By those we thought as friends, of three lives we have been thieved  
**

 **For the good of all, so the traitor believed  
To this day, the motives remain unperceived  
**

 **Stryker, Nex and Gleam, their heads cleaved  
Raid, Stingclaw and Vis, so deeply grieved**

 **So each new day, we move into a crimson dawn  
We are three hunters, our journey still goes on**

Thud finished the final part of the song with a suppressed, mournful howl at the sky, took another deep breath and mustered Littlefoot once more. At this point, he was expecting him to freak out and do something unreasonable, which would've been totally understandable. But that didn't happen. Littlefoot was looking him straight in the eye and kept a completely neutral face. However, Thud was far too aware of what could be going on behind that obvious mask, and his presumptions should be confirmed.

The brown fastbiter's eyes. In his piercing yellow eyes, usually filled with calmness and joy, there was a blazing hot fire burning. And then there were his scents. They were dominated by raw anger, but also confusion and deep sadness.

Thud knew these scents. These were the very same scents that radiated from himself back when his brother was murdered, back when he finally opened his eyes and saw the truth. These were the scents of a betrayed.

He just wanted to tell Littlefoot to stay calm and not do something rash but it was Littlefoot who spoke up first, and anything that could have possibly given away his current state of mind had disappeared from the realms of perception.

"Thanks, Thud. I won't bother you again." He said in a calm, relaxed voice. "Why don't you tell the others to prepare for a hunt? Spotter, Soar and their children are... busy today, so I think it's time for some tracking practice for me again."

Littlefoot's honest smile made Thud relax noticeably, too.

"I told you, you are growing too accustomed to having your personal flying tracker." Thud responded in jest, chuckled slightly and smiled back. "Will do."

Littlefoot had already turned around and already prepared himself to sprint off when Thud raised his voice once more.

"Oh, and Seeker...?"

"Yes?"

"Leave the wind in your wake."

Littlefoot answered with another smile and exploded into a sprint, truly teaching the wind a lesson in speed, making Thud lose his visual on him within moments. What the elder fastbiter did not realize, however, was that Littlefoot still had something on his mind.

So before he would track this morning's meal he would do something else, first.

 _Time to consult Path. If that doesn't lead to anything, it'll be up to you, Spotter... Please just tell me I'm wrong..._

* * *

 **The Outlands:**

 **Tap. Tap... Tap. Tap... Tap. Tap...**

The sounds of his two sickle claws touching the ground in a perfectly rhythmic pattern spoke volumes about Specter's current thoughts. He asked himself exactly what Chaser would want to show him, and given what has happened so far could only lead him to one conclusion.

But he didn't have time to ponder about that any further, as Chaser finally finished his meal and walked up to him with crashing footsteps.

"Let's go." The two-footer just said.

Specter jumped up without hesitation and joined him by his side, albeit also slightly to his back. There was at least one case he knew of in his past home country's extensive history when walking directly besides the leader was considered such a grave insult that it had led to someone losing his life, so he figured it might not be any different in this time.

Especially not with a leader that used to be once known as 'Sharptooth', who was the son of none other than Red Claw himself.

But regardless of all that, he just felt sad. It was not his past life he consciously missed anymore but rather his pack. His first and actual pack. With them he had felt at home, felt cared about. They had found him, taught him, basically raised him and shaped him. Maybe some of their methods had been questionable but in the end it was probably for the best, considering how novel his whole personality was.

He especially remembered his training sessions with a certain purple two-footer, without whom he probably would not have been alive anymore.

* * *

 **Three weeks ago, one day after the events of Chapter 4:**

"Thanks for helping me, Path. I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it. I almost missed doing this, training ankle-biters." Chomper replied with a smile. "So, how are you holding up with that new body of yours?"

"Quite well." Specter said, stopped shortly and moved around every single part of his body, finishing with a quick jump before he continued his movement. "I have always been quick to learn new things but this is a bit... different from anything else so far."

"I can imagine."

"There is one thing I don't understand though... On my first hunt..."

"You felt like you lost control?" Chomper interrupted and finished Specter's question at the same time.

"Yes, I... Wait. How do you know that?" Specter asked in surprise. What had been going on inside his head on that day was not part of his song, after all.

Chomper laughed slightly at that.

"I thought you told us you were once one of the smartest creatures ever?" The jest in his voice disappeared at once as soon as he noticed Specter's dumbstruck face. "You really didn't notice, did you?"

Specter shook his head.

"Notice what? I thought that threehorn was going to..."

"Kill Seeker?" Chomper finished for Specter once more. "Did you honestly think an adolescent horn-face could take him down like that?"

His hearty laugh was retorted with an embarrassed, but also insulted look from Specter.

"But... I thought he... And... Ponder's scents... Spotter's reaction... How...?"

Chomper sighed and gave him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, Specter, I thought you would have figured it out by now. It was my idea, though it was meant for Seeker to use on that longneck in case something had gone wrong. I didn't expect him to dare testing it out on a threehorn but... well, that's how he is."

Specter still had the completely overwhelmed and dumbstruck look on his face, so Chomper decided to explain this in more detail.

"Alright listen, when the Stone changed most of us, the residents of the valley were not really happy when they found five fastbiters, a sharptooth flyer and a two-footer, me, who they never really trusted in the first place to be honest, instead of their children. So, naturally, they tried to kill us. You figure."

"Well..." Specter finally answered, but with a lot of confusion in his voice. "Seeker already told me he was an Apato... uhh... longneck once. So I guess since some of you guys used to walk on four legs, you could barely walk on two then. But all of you still made it out alive, it seems."

"Exactly. See, what you felt when you 'lost control' were your instincts taking over. It happens when you, a loved one or a friend is in danger. It forces us to act and unleash what's deep inside of us, and we will remember it. Seeker told me you needed to learn as fast as possible, to which I agreed, and this was the only option."

"What?! You're saying that... he tricked me?! He just pretended to be almost killed?!" Specter exclaimed.

"Well... Pretty much, yes. Spotter didn't know about this. And concerning Ponder... Didn't you notice the fresh wound on Seeker's face?"

"He told me he cut himself on some thorns..."

"Nope, that was her reaction for not letting her know, too." Chomper replied, this time without a smile, however. It was only now that he saw Specter's reaction that he understood what kind of effect it had on the black fastbiter. "But it worked out, didn't it? You learned faster than any of us."

Specter looked at the ground after hearing this, but not really out of anger. It was something else immensely bothering him.

"A fricking dinosaur outsmarted me..." He muttered to himself.

Chomper tilted his head at that.

"Uhm... In case you haven't noticed, you're one yourself. And you've been outsmarted by none other than Seeker. Where is the problem in that?"

"Because no damn dinosaur should..." Specter already started his insulted speech, but then took a deep breath and calmed his voice. "You're right, I'm sorry. I guess I owe both you and him..."

"No... There's no need for you to be sorry. I'm the one that has to apologize. I just wanted to spare you of what all of them, all of us, went through... and in the end I forced you to take two lives, just like Haven was forced to take one back then... This was such a bad idea!" He took a short pause there, trying to express how ashamed he really felt about this now. "But... trust me, the sooner you get used to killing, the sooner you will enjoy your life as a sharptooth."

Specter firmly shook his head, which made Chomper feel even more uncomfortable.

"No, Path, you were right. So was Seeker. It was probably for the best. I can't spend days learning how to properly sprint and use my claws. I need to know this now."

"Good, thank you." Chomper said in relief. "So, now that you're a bit more 'capable', let's do a proper hunt, shall we?"

Specter gave him a nod and the two massive predators accelerated the pace.

But Chomper was not done analyzing the fastbiter just yet, who was almost as tall as himself. He was not too annoyed by this though, as he was aware that he would still grow even bigger, just like his father. He felt a little bit out of place, not too much of a surprise, casually teaching a full-grown fastbiter such as Specter, but he trusted his story to be true. And besides, it only made him feel quite special. It was a testament to his abilities and Specter's confidence in him.

"Tell me about yesterday. Seeker told me you put up quite a show with those swimmers."

"I was lucky, that's all. Without that... uhm... what do you call it... 'Sky Boom' and 'Sky Fire'... I could not have pulled it off."

"We all need a bit of luck sometimes. You should not let that pull you down. Just be thankful for it and move on. But that's not what I'm interested in. That swimmer was your first actual kill with a clear mind. You _wanted_ to kill her. How did that make you feel?"

Specter needed a while to think about this. This was a question he had never really asked himself and now that Chomper did, he didn't know how to put it.

"I... don't really know. Not good but... somehow calm and... satisfied... if that makes sense."

"Hm. Everyone has a different view on killing. As long as you're killing to stay alive, nobody can blame you for that." Chomper noticed Specter's silent affirmation in his eyes, but he definitely wanted to press another point. "However, you let her children go. Why?"

Specter was seriously taken aback by that question. It was an honest question and Chomper seemed to demand an honest answer from him.

"Because they were not my targets. I would never hurt a child." He responded.

Chomper let out another sigh before he spoke up again.

"There are two ways to take a life, Specter. One is to actively kill your target... the other is to let others do it, may it be other sharpteeth or just nature. You hurt those children far more with what you did than if you had just killed them, too."

"No! I didn't!" Came Specter's immediate and highly angered response.

Both hunters stopped in their tracks and Chomper almost flinched when he heard Specter's voice and smelled his scents. He had never expected such an outburst from the fastbiter, so he let him continue without a word of objection.

"I listened to what they said! The adult was their aunt and I told the children to go back to their parents! I did nothing wrong!"

Chomper waited patiently until Specter's breathing rhythm calmed down again. Only then, he raised his deep voice.

"Then you might have saved them. Just know that they will hate you for all their lives, kill you if they will ever get the chance."

"As if I would ever see them again... And even if I will... If that's what it takes, I'm fine with it. I don't like children but I would never kill them. Not for food, not for anything." Specter made clear with a firm voice.

Chomper felt the urge to use a funny line to redirect this whole conversation to a more relaxed topic, after all, the warm time had just passed and he was highly interested to hear about Specter's past mating habits, but decided against it and just remained serious about this.

"Very well, that's your choice then. We'll see how you think about it once you haven't eaten for a few days. Anyway, we're close now. Can you smell them already?"

Specter raised his head up high and sniffed the warm air of this afternoon profoundly.

"No, not yet."

"So I still have the best sniffer around." Chomper stated in a happier tone, and he was pleasantly surprised to see Specter smile again.

They returned their movement, and after what seemed to be about a kilometer to Specter, he stopped again to check for any scents.

"Now I smell them! Four swimmers. All of them adults, no children."

"You have quite the impressive sniffer yourself, for a fastbiter at least, I'll give you that. Almost as good as mine... _Almost_. One of them is a lot younger than the others."

"Well, thanks. I used to have horrible eyes without my glasses or contacts, but damn good ears and a pretty good nose in my past life and I think that sort of carried over. Only my eyes really got a lot better now and I can see... Uhm... never mind. Why would that be so important?"

"The difference between an experienced and a young adult could be the difference between life and death for you, should you ever be forced to hunt on your own. Maybe not with swimmers, but surely with let's say threehorns. Never underestimate that."

The tone in Chomper's voice reminded Specter a lot of an annoying teacher who tried to expose his students with their lack of knowledge. However, in this case, that knowledge was actually immensely helpful and there was an almost fatherly undertone he found as well, so he just figured that this must've been Chomper's way of forcing him to remember it.

"Makes sense. So, I guess I should be going after the younger one?"

"I would suggest so, yes. He will be faster, but he will also probably taste better."

Specter smirked slightly and licked his razor-sharp teeth. He had spent most of this day with refining his running technique and stamina, so he was pretty hungry at this point.

But before he could ask about some further advice, Chomper took the word again.

"Speaking of taste... How exactly did you kill your target yesterday?"

"Well, I wanted to make it as painless as possible so I ripped open her side with the claws on my hand and broke her neck with a bite."

Chomper noticed Specter's prideful confidence in that statement. And he wanted to praise him for that. However, he had noticed something else on the last day.

"And that's what you call painless?" He started, and despite Specter's stare of utter horror, he went further. "I could taste it in her flesh. Quite chewy, her muscles were all pulled together."

Specter knew exactly what Chomper's observations meant. Contracted muscles were prime evidence that death had been anything but 'painless' for a victim. Only now he realized that he had been so obsessed with talking to the little swimmer children that he completely neglected checking for the adult swimmer's death.

But Chomper didn't want to go too hard on him. Given that this was his first conscious act of killing, Specter had done an outstanding job in his eyes.

"Don't worry, it... happens. Going for her neck was the right move and if you do... make sure you break it. Or just try to use your feet more and leave the biting to a two-footer."

Specter took a quick glance at his two huge sickle claws, let them touch the ground a few times and gave Chomper an understanding nod.

"Alright. You know what to do. You wanted to approach them silently, which I think is totally unnecessary, but have it your way. From now on, we use signs."

Specter grunted in affirmation and the two hunters resumed their fast movement. The minutes went by and the swimmers' scents grew stronger with every step taken. The duo stopped once more when they both had visuals on their targets, which were standing in a group around 200 meters away from them.

Specter used his right forelimb to communicate his simple plan to Chomper. He pointed at the youngest swimmer, at himself, to the right, at Chomper, at the two-footer's throat and then to his left.

Chomper gave him a nod and slowly went off towards where Specter had pointed at while the fastbiter moved in the other direction. When both of them reached their positions, Specter raised his tail up high and wiggled it, shaking the golden feathers at its tip.

Chomper smiled at that unusual way of giving a sign and took a deep breath.

 **Roar!**

His shattering roar echoed through the air and the group of swimmers burst into a headlong sprint. Directly at where Specter was waiting.

He exploded into a sprint as well from out of a few bushes, and the swimmers had no time to change their course anymore. His target was running at the front, so he already bent his tail down, prepared his powerful legs and then suddenly propelled all his weight upwards.

The swimmer had no time to evade that attack.

 **Screech! Shluck!**

Following his predatory shriek, one of Specter's sickle claws dug deep into the leaf-eater's flank, piercing one of its lungs, while the other drilled through the flesh near its hind leg. His full weight combined with the momentum he carried threw the swimmer on its other side with a loud crash, and Specter graciously jumped off of his prey and landed with a soft thud on his feet.

But now there was nothing that could've distracted him from his target anymore. He went over to the swimmer's head, saw how it was bleeding out of its beak, already choking on its own blood, and kicked out once more.

 **Shluck!**

This time, his killing claw pierced his target's throat and he immediately ripped it out again. For a few more seconds, the swimmer emitted the horrible sounds of the dying creature it was. Mournful sobbing, probably asking itself how and why this could have happened.

Specter knew the answer to that. It was simply for him and Chomper to live on. A necessary sacrifice. And as soon as the last breath of life faded away from the swimmer, he could hear Chomper slowly approaching him.

"Nicely done!" Came the booming voice from behind him. "If you keep this up, you'll make even angry threehorns run away in fear."

"Maybe... But what about other sharpteeth?" Came Specter's direct question.

"Why would you want to fight other sharpteeth?" Chomper asked the counterquestion in surprise.

"I don't. But what if _they_ want to fight _me_?" Specter answered with a lot of concern.

"Then you have a whole pack of fastbiters and a two-footer to back you up."

Chomper's friendly smile prompted Specter to simply drop this topic. He didn't want to push himself too far and for now, he was just glad that he was making good progress and that he would soon be able to continue his mission.

And besides, surely he would never have to fight other predators anyway.

* * *

 **The present:**

He had to sigh heavily at those memories. How naive he had been. How utterly stupid of him to think that he would be fine, always relying on his pack. What a pathetic idiot he was. He had ruined everything he had worked so hard for, for a mission without success. Out here, there were no friends to support him. No one would have his back. Someone like Chaser would most likely kill him or just leave him to his fate as soon as he would figure out that he just wasn't able to help him at all, that he was nothing more than a little black fuzzball in a world of giant killers.

"Stop."

Specter almost bumped into Chaser's rump when the two-footer suddenly said this and came to a halt, turning around.

"We're close now. I hope you're prepared to see this."

He gulped audibly but didn't say anything in return and let Chaser take point again.

* * *

"A herd of spiketails, ten adults and five children."

"Very good, Valaria!" Petrie praised his daughter.

The whole flyer family was soaring through the thick clouds in a loose wedge formation, using the thermal updrafts to carry them further and further without consuming too much energy. Petrie wanted to feel happy and excited about this little tracking exercise for his children. They had already proven themselves to be capable trackers but they still needed to learn much more, of course.

And yet, he just couldn't feel that way. The moment Littlefoot had come to him early in the morning, he knew he would have to carry quite a burden. Right now, he was just hoping that he could prove his leader wrong, that everything was like the rainbowfaces had told him.

"A two-footer and a fastbiter."

Petrie instantly snapped out of his thoughts and switched his attention to the ground. He laid eyes on a massive, dark green two-footer and a big, red fastbiter.

 _Two friends like that? Even out here? Wait... what...?_

His eyes widened and he shot upwards to block his son's vision on the ground.

"Well done, Dive." He spoke to the surprised little flyer. "This be enough for today. Time to fly home."

Soar gave her mate an asking look but as soon as his eyes met hers, her heart seemed to have stopped beating for a moment.

"Yes... come now, children. Your father will follow us in a bit." She said and adjusted her course, which the children did without hesitation, too.

Petrie gave his departing family one last look before he folded his wings and dived down. He was way too high up to make out any distinctive details, even his with extremely good eyes, but one thing had not eluded him with that fastbiter.

 _That fastbiter has feathers..._

For a moment, he felt overwhelming joy, but came the next, all of that was gone again.

 _No... His feathers were black..._

He still was very surprised to see this, however. After all, Specter had been the only fastbiter other than the select few of the pack, the former leaf-eater friends which had been turned into sharpteeth, to have those things. He felt the urge to make his presence known to the two sharpteeth but decided against it. One could never be too careful in unknown lands, he thought to himself.

So he extended his wings again and resumed his glide. He could quite clearly see now that they were looking for something.

 _But for what?_

Petrie decided to just search along the way they had come from, and soon hovered high above a massive longneck corpse, most of its body ripped apart.

 _Longnecks can grow this big?! Hm... They just had their meal. So why they still tracking something?_

He looped and followed the sharpteeth again, with a very uneasy mind by now. That fastbiter was not the one he was looking for but it still had his full interest. He just knew that something was wrong here.

And then, around ten longneck-lengths away from the two predators and situated in a depression, he saw it. A lot more that of that crimson color.

 _By... the... Bright... Circle...  
_

He flapped his wings as hard as he could and darted across the skies.

* * *

Chaser stopped right in front of the depression before him and turned his side towards Specter, blocking the fastbiter's view on what lay hidden behind his flank.

"So, do you want to meet the longneck herd I've told you about?"

Specter once again didn't say anything in return and just stepped forward. He certainly had his expectations on what he would be about to see now. There was no way for him to think positive anymore. Simply because he could already smell what he would soon see.

But when he finally looked down into the depression, it felt like the world came crashing down on him.

 _Oh... my... fucking... god..._

Corpses everywhere. Five mutilated bodies of gigantic longnecks and around ten of smaller ones. The whole ground below them was drenched in blood and innards. And just like Arga had told him, they certainly had not been killed for food. The bodies were torn to pieces but none of them had too much of their flesh ripped out.

Without even thinking any further, Specter stumbled forwards and directly on the battleground. Never in his life had he seen anything like this, not even in the most horrifyingly gory movies he could have named. This was beyond his capabilities to describe. All of these bodies used to be living creatures just yesterday. Some of them multiple times his own size, some of them just as big, and some of them way smaller. The only thing all these longnecks had in common now was that they would soon turn into stinking, rotting carcasses. Some of them already were.

And then he laid eyes on something else. Two of the killed adults were females, sliced open at their abdomens, a dozen of underdeveloped eggs lying in their blood and guts.

 _They... killed... two pregnant females... Just like that... Just... to...  
_

This was just too much to handle for him. He began to breathe heavily, his body started to shake, and then he finally raised his head in the air and vented all of his emotions.

* * *

 **Screech!**

Petrie almost fell off the tree branch he perched on. He has heard his fair share of fastbiter cries in his life, but this was different. This cry, coming from this strange, red fastbiter, carried no sorrow. This cry was only filled with raw anger and pure hatred, which seemed to fill his very own heart even hearing it.

Given the sight of the murdered longneck herd, he certainly had great trouble keeping his own emotions under control.

But it also made him remember something. It sounded a lot like the cry he had heard quite a while back in his pack's territory, the same cry to which he had seen Littlefoot going to and finding Specter in the end.

 _But... that mean..._

He shook his head. Maybe it was possible for some leaf-eaters to change into sharpteeth through this mysterious Stone, but a dead fastbiter awakening with changed colors? This couldn't be possible, there was no logical way. But he just had to make sure now. He had to see if it really was him.

So he jumped off the branch and shifted his vantage point to the closest one he would be able to get to without alerting the sharptooth of his presence. His new perch was only just over four longneck-lengths away from the fastbiter now.

And it was only now, from this straight angle, that he saw the fastbiter with all its details. Most of its rear and tail had large black spots and he could still quite clearly see those distinctive golden crest feathers running along from its head to its back. That red hue on the fastbiter's body wasn't a color it had hatched with.

That was blood. Crimson blood on pitch black feathers.

 _No... No! This can't be!_ _ _Me know this not true!_ He would never do this to peaceful longnecks!  
_

Petrie's thoughts were in utter chaos but he was certain that he was right with at least one assumption.

That this massacre had not been Specter's doing. In fact, he was so certain that he already extended his wings again to fly towards him. But that idea got cut short, as the massive two-footer from earlier moved next to the fastbiter.

And just like with Specter, it was only now that Petrie saw all the details. The dark green two-footer had a unique injury. Its right eye was not working anymore. And there was only one single two-footer Petrie knew of that had this combination of colors and injury.

He would never forget that disgusting face.

This sharptooth standing right next to who he had thought was a good friend of his pack, was the very same sharptooth that had tried to kill him in its last moments. This unrelenting beast that had chased him and his friends across the lands. And not only that. This sharptooth was also the son of Red Claw, who had taken so much from everyone.

 _Sharptooth?! It... him! How can...?!_

 **Slice!**

Petrie had just enough time to jump to the air and evade the flurry of claws coming from behind him. His perch had been quite near to the ground, which it was now lying on, and another fastbiter seemed to have noticed him spying on the two bigger sharpteeth. It was probably one of Sharptooth's minions, Petrie quickly noted to himself.

But he didn't care a single bit about almost having been killed or how many underlings this vile two-footer had. It was not for him to decide where to go from this point on.

He had completed his mission, the mission he had so much hoped would turn out to be a failure, and with an enraged heart, he shot back up into the sky and disappeared in the clouds again.

* * *

Neither Chaser nor Specter noticed the fast shadow emerging from the forest and vanishing in the sky. Both of them had their attention fixated on something different.

"Why?" Specter finally asked, with a voice that was still quaking with anger. "Why would someone do this?"

"To send a message." Chaser responded in his usual apathetic, dry tone. "They want us to be scared and give up our territory. That's the only reason they killed all these longnecks. Now, will you help me with those pests?"

Were Specter in full control of his emotions, he would have probably asked for another day to think about this or simply declined. As it was, however, his calmness and cool head were gone, and his answer came instantly.

"I will kill them... Every single one of them."

Chaser smirked at that. It filled him with unusual pride to see a fastbiter with a determination he had only seen in himself so far. But there were also some other feelings mixed in.

 _So you're brave, too... Let's see for how long. The brave are always the first to die._

* * *

 **And this is how I would like to conclude this chapter. It took me quite a long time as I had a lot of things to take care of, and when I was finally able to get back to writing, I had to "get used to it" again, too.**

 **Nevertheless, I hope the outcome is acceptable, and I should have some more time for my writing in the next weeks.**

 **So, thank you for bearing with me this far!**

 **Take care, and until next time.**

 _ **Revised**_


	14. Chapter 13: Trust

**Chapter 13: Trust**

 _ **"You think I'm a fool?" demanded Harry.  
"No, I think you're like James," said Lupin, "who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends." - J. K. Rowling  
**_

"So you two have been successful as well, huh?" Alba noted in her usual monotonic voice, as soon as she laid eyes on the blood-soaked, tall form of Specter.

He didn't respond to that. He didn't even deign to look at her. He just walked straight past her, his tail hanging low and a deadpanned look on his face. And it was when he just disappeared into the underbrush again that Alba noticed the scents which followed after him.

Mixed with the smell of longneck blood were overwhelming fear, sadness and a bit of uncertainty, but even more so the scents of anger and hate. Burning anger and blazing hatred. If the desire to murder had a single scent, all these emotions put together would've been it, she deduced.

She just stood there with an expressionless face of her own, but definitely wanted to know what was going on. The two big sharpteeth had been on a hunt, this much was clear to her, but why the massive fastbiter acted and especially smelled like this was definitely not. So she already turned around to follow after Specter when the crashing footsteps of a two-footer prevented her from doing that. She flexed her neck around and could see her leader finally making his way into the forest as well. In contrary to his hunting companion, he only had a few stains of blood around his muzzle and on his teeth.

But she didn't have the time to draw a conclusion, as Chaser came to a stop right behind her, eyed her posture for a moment and shook his head once. Alba perfectly understood that silent order and turned her whole body back towards him.

"Where is your brother?" Chaser asked plainly.

"Still out hunting. Don't know where exactly he is though. It's... _that_ time again..." She responded with a note of sadness in her voice.

Although her brother, too, had long since made peace with what happened in the past, he still cared a lot about this little ritual of his. A fastbiter hunting alone was very likely to end up being a dead fastbiter at the end of that hunt, but it was Shade's way of 'keeping the pain alive', reminding himself how much he had actually lost, how little he was worth without his pack and how he shouldn't be alive anymore. At least that's how he had always explained it to his sister. And seeing how he always came back unharmed, Alba didn't really worry too much about his habit whenever another cold time approached. She trusted in his abilities like in none other, probably not even Chaser himself.

Chaser was aware of most of the sibling's background but only nodded at this explanation.

"Let him have his alone time then. For now, keep an eye on the fuzzball. I want to test something. But let him have some rest, first."

Alba grunted in affirmation and went off towards the fastbiter sleeping area, where she suspected Specter to be now.

However, she couldn't help but wonder why all of this was happening so abruptly. It was connected to the small pack's newest member and that was what unnerved her the most. First the Smoking Mountain spat fire, killing off dozens of herds, hundreds of individual sources of food, then, amidst all of this chaos, some illusive fastbiter called Specter showed up and Chaser just ordered to take him in. It was never a good sign when problems followed after someone, but with this newcomer it was almost too obvious. The way Chaser wanted to always have his talks with him in private was only the most blatant example. It was too unusual to not think about it.

But for now, she had her orders and she would just follow them.

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

"And now you want my advice?" Chomper asked, slightly in surprise.

"Yes, why would I not?" Littlefoot asked in return. "I just don't know, Path... I really don't. I thought I knew how to handle this but... I just can't wrap my head around it anymore."

"You mean you don't trust him anymore." Chomper stated matter-of-factly after some time, and seeing how Littlefoot frowned and looked away from him, he knew that he had found a tender spot. "Do you honestly believe this spiketail shit of a story is about him?"

"No, but..." Littlefoot cut himself off there, as he didn't know which of Chomper's two statements he wanted to answer with that.

"Why did you take him in after only a single day?" Chomper relentlessly pressed his point further.

"Because I..." Littlefoot took another pause there, heavily thinking about how to word this sentence. But he couldn't come to a conclusion.

Chomper let out a slight sigh.

"Must I really remind you of your own change? Of everything we've been through as a pack, as friends? Of how you gave Taunt and Breeze, Leap and Swift a new home?"

"That was different." Littlefoot responded immediately this time, still not making eye contact though. "It's taken us seasons to get used to all this, and it took _him_ days. He said he had never hunted before, never even taken a life before, and yet he was totally fine with killing every day and the sight of blood. And I've never heard of a trick that lets you alter your scents, nor have I ever heard of someone so accepting of this fate."

"Did you actually expect him to be like you? Like us? Is that why you took him in like that? Seeker, he was different from all of us and so are we, still, from most other sharpteeth. He didn't even know you for a single day and still risked his life for you, while you entrusted him with yours. I've told you this tactic is dangerous. It's the most brutal way to test someone's loyalty and yet you still used it. So, can you name any other sharptooth or leaf-eater that would do what he did? What _you_ did?"

"I had it all under control... Besides, those were his instincts acting on that day."

Chomper laughed at this. Firstly, he would really not call that situation 'under control' at all, despite it having been carefully planned, and secondly, his definition of instinct-controlled acting was a bit different.

"Indeed they were. And in case you've forgotten why we even agreed to do this to him, it is at that moment, when a sharptooth's instincts take over, that he reveals his true face. No 'trick' changes that. Maybe he could change his scents but he couldn't change what he was at heart." Chomper paused there shortly before adding a little afterthought, expressing it through obvious annoyance in his deep voice. "Damn... I'm starting to sound just like you."

Littlefoot instantly looked back into Chomper's eyes now. That afterthought coming from the two-footer really made something click inside him.

Because Chomper was completely right. With everything he said. Getting hit alone, but certainly, if only seemingly, almost being killed by an adolescent threehorn was a blatant sign of weakness from a leader, even though he had only pretended to be unconscious and actually wanted to take that hit. Any sharptooth that hadn't known him and was only remotely used to this life would have let the threehorn have him at its leisure. And pretty much the same would've went for a leaf-eater, had the roles been interchanged.

Specter, however, had not.

It was just now that Littlefoot realized how messed up this whole tactic had been, despite the rather good outcome. Not only had he forced Specter to kill two living beings on his very first day as a fastbiter, but he also mistrusted him in the end for it. He felt seriously ashamed of himself for letting his very own instincts get the better of him. And the worst thing was that he didn't even know where that sudden mistrust had come from. It took one vague song for him to heed doubts about the only other sharptooth besides his original friends he felt he could relate to when it came to having lived two lives. Being completely honest, he really thought the black fastbiter was like himself, at least a tiny little bit, which was indeed why he decided to skip the usual procedures of taking in new pack members.

 _You've taught me better than this, Skytail... I'm sorry if I've forgotten about that... And you, too, Specter... You were afraid of me, you didn't know how to sit down back then, you were even afraid of my own children... And what did I do? Instead of being happy to have found another friend, instead of being proud of you and how quickly you got used to this, I forced you to stay here and fit in because I thought it would be the right thing to do... I never even asked what you might've been thinking would've been the right thing to do. Ponder has told me so often about what pained you, about why you wanted to go, why you couldn't stay... and I still dismissed it, tried to control your path. What has become of me? I should have just accepted it... I let you down, I doubted you and left you to die all alone..._ _ _I'm sorry... I wish we could just start over... But it's too late for that now._ Rest in peace, my friend.  
_

"Thank you, Path... I wouldn't know what to do without you." He finally gave his honest appreciation.

"Without me, none of you little ankle-biters would've survived in the first place." Chomper stated and smirked widely.

"And without me, when you were still a little biter yourself, you would've been..."

 **Thud!**

Littlefoot's jocular retort was promptly interrupted by a brown sharptooth flyer, ungently landing on the ground right next to the two sharpteeth with his back turned towards them and his wings still extended.

"Spotter...?" Littlefoot asked carefully and in surprise, as Petrie's posture was really not the best of signs right now.

And as Petrie slowly folded his wings and turned around so that Littlefoot and Chomper could finally see his grave expression, there wasn't a more obvious sign that something seriously bad was going on. The look on the flyer's face communicated far too many things at once. Mostly, however, problematic things.

"Me have good news and bad news. Good news be, he alive... Bad news be, he make new friend..."

* * *

 **The Outlands:**

Alba used the steady stream of Sky Water to mask her scents and dampen her movement sounds. Despite her above average size, something she had probably inherited from her father, she was unparalleled at observing and sneaking. Having lived a life on the run, this was the only way to survive for her. Not only did the disease she carried make her easily visible in any surrounding, but it also made her a lot weaker than others. While she outmatched her brother in size for example, he outmatched her in strength by a considerable margin. What made up for that again was her agility and speed. There was no prey or predator capable of outrunning her once she's gotten into a full sprint. Combined with the fact that the Bright Circle was quite harmful to her, she had already early on in her life resorted to hunting or scavenging at night, or at least while the clouds blocked the Bright Circle's light from shining down onto her white skin.

It wasn't a good life, but at least it was a life. It was her life.

And it was in situations like these, when the sky was dark and she was unnoticed by everything and everyone, that she was in her element, when she actually enjoyed being what she was. Even though the challenge here only consisted of watching over a big fuzzball and making sure he wouldn't run away.

The rustling of leaves and bushes, too, was easily drowned out by the sounds of the Sky Water and she soon arrived at the fastbiter sleeping space. Carefully, she laid down on her haunches behind the closest bush to the clearing and started observing the black fastbiter, who was sitting on the little overhang and stared into the distance, breathing calmly and facing away from her.

What gave the scenery quite the ghastly touch, even for a fastbiter such as herself, was that the Sky Water caused the blood on Specter's body to run down his black feathers and slowly form a pool of crimson around him.

She could only imagine his thoughts right now.

* * *

 _What have I gotten myself into? I'm such an idiot... I can't do this... I can't... I just can't...  
_

The many hundreds of cool raindrops hitting, dripping off and cleaning his black feathers every second were warmly welcomed and already expected by him. The dark clouds had covered the sky ever since he went out hunting with Chaser, but he just wished that it had started raining earlier. Preferably when he had just laid eyes on the massacred longneck herd.

Because he might have kept a cool head then.

As it was now, however, he had declared to kill the sharpteeth Chaser needed help with. He had unanimously agreed to help the two-footer. Yes, he had been honest with his promise. And yes, he really wanted to kill those murderers. What they had done reminded him so much of a terrorist group from his own time. And even in his empathic and understanding eyes, such creatures deserved to be killed without mercy.

But the plain fact was that this was simply out of his league. It would've been challenge enough if those sharpteeth were average fastbiters, as even an average fastbiter could've most likely killed him in his current state, but not even the most dangerous fastbiter of his very own size could've possibly ripped longnecks this massive apart in such a fashion. Especially not alone.

And after what Arga had told him about the killers of her herd, he felt completely lost now. She had told him that some of the sharpteeth looked a lot like him and were no fastbiters, which could only mean that they had feathers, too, and were pretty big. But since neither Tyrannosauruses nor any other type of carnivore around these lands matched the description, the killers must've been quite diverse in their species. They must've been dinosaurs he had never seen before, just like the Therizinosaurus family on the last day. This uncertainty, not knowing what he would be up against, was an almost bigger mental torture to him right now than the fate of mankind had been once.

 _Chaser was right with his implications from the start... I'm a fool AND a coward... I have to finally tell him the truth... Whatever I do, I'll die anyway... Maybe... he won't even take it that hard...  
_

But that was something he wanted to do at a later point on this day, maybe when Chaser didn't have the taste of blood on his tongue anymore. So he jumped up, rubbed his feathers clean for a bit and went towards the big rock that provided some shelter from the rain. He took a deep breath, curled himself up beneath it and closed his eyes.

However long his little nap would be though, it would not be a pleasant one.

 _Seeker... Where are you when I need you the most? Please... don't leave me out here... I can't do this alone...  
_

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

All eyes were firmly planted on the brown fastbiter, who was flanked by a brown sharptooth flyer and a purple two-footer. Most of the pack couldn't really comprehend what has caused this sudden meeting, there was a hunt supposed to take place by now, actually, but everyone could guess that it must've been something serious.

"Alright then..." Littlefoot spoke up. "Before Spotter left us for some tracking practice with his family earlier, I entrusted him with another mission. I'm sorry I didn't tell anyone but I didn't want to raise any false hopes about this matter. I wanted to see if it was really true what the rainbowfaces said, if Specter really was dead."

His statement was retorted with a lot of asking looks. Just when they had all accepted that unforeseen loss, their leader decided to bring it up again for no apparent reason. After all, why would the rainbowfaces be wrong? A flying rock had hit the Smoking Mountain next to the valley and there was just no way someone could've survived that.

But Littlefoot was quick to continue.

"And Spotter was successful. He is alive..."

The moment he said that, everyone's eyes widened and some of the assembled sharpteeth already prepared themselves to jump up in joy. Everyone except Thud and Swift, who could only exchange worried looks from their positions a bit further away from the rest.

"However..."

But the moment he said _that_ , everyone froze in their positions and lowered themselves back to the ground.

"It looks like he's found himself a new companion where he is now."

The asking looks from earlier started to return by now. The growing tension in the air was something not even Chomper could've ripped apart, were he able to do such a thing. The small pause Littlefoot took there made the assembled fastbiters and flyers almost shiver in anxiety.

"None other... than Sharptooth himself."

And now, he could see rows and rows of sharp teeth. All the other pack members' jaws had dropped at this point. He decided to let them digest that first before speaking again. He himself still couldn't really comprehend all this just yet.

"What?! But that's impossible!" Cera suddenly exclaimed. "Seeker, we all saw him die in that watering hole! He's dead! We killed him! Maybe..."

"Me know what me seen!" Petrie immediately cut her off. "Do you think me would forget his face?!"

As unusual as it was for her, Cera flinched at this and went silent instantly. In this case, there certainly was no room whatsoever for her skeptical way of thinking. If Sharptooth had tried to take her instead of Petrie with him into his watery grave, she wouldn't forget it either, she figured. And truth be told, she had never forgotten that day in the first place. It was her fault that the two-footer had even woken up again, after all.

"Maybe... he... doesn't know it's him." Ducky then spoke after some time, with a lot of hope and confidence in her voice.

But Littlefoot's retort came instantly.

"No, Haven, he knows it's him. Sadly, it was one of the first things I had to tell him when he asked me about our old lives, about how we discovered the Great Valley and why Red Claw wanted everyone dead. Besides... I think Sharptooth is still not afraid to make his name known..."

"To the dung heap with Sharptooth! What about Specter?" Taunt cut him off, and he was supported by multiple grunts of approval.

Littlefoot smiled sadly at this, and seeing how everyone was already out of hopeful words now, he continued. With a fateful decision, this time.

"I think it's finally time to leave him be and return to our normal lives. This is out of reach for us."

"What?!" Ruby almost shouted before anyone else could even mount a reaction. "You want to just leave him... with Sharptooth?! After everything you've told..."

"Have you thought about that he might actually _want_ to stay with him, dear?" Littlefoot interrupted her in a very calm and respectful voice. "The fact alone that Sharptooth hasn't killed him means something, wouldn't you agree? I have interfered enough. This is his decision, not mine. It's his life."

"How can you say that?" Ruby continued, with an almost begging tone in her voice. "Sharptooth is Red Claw's son! There were so many horrible stories about him! So many sharpteeth and leaf-eaters alike he has killed! So much pain and suffering he has brought over everyone! He is the son of a monster! The son of a monster he is! He even killed your..."

"Stop!" Littlefoot shrieked out, which made Ruby go silent immediately. "I am fully aware of what he did. And so is Specter. But if he's with Sharptooth now, then that must have a good reason. It's not up to me or any of us to judge him for what he did in the past. Revenge leads to nothing but more bloodshed. And I think we had enough of that already... We would be no better than Red Claw."

He received shocked faces, followed by sad nods from everyone. Bloodshed was just the daily life of a sharptooth, true, but the bloodshed caused by Red Claw as an act of pure hatred and revenge on the whole Great Valley was second to none. Not to mention all the events that followed after the pack started their new lives far away from the valley. Just thinking about this made something in at least all the adult sharpteeth's stomachs turn. Obviously, everyone wanted to avoid something like that from ever happening again.

"As much as it pains me, there's nothing we can do. I trust Specter. I trust him and his judgement. If he wants to return, he will return. And if he's still the same sharptooth we all know, then I will welcome him once more. If not, he will stay there either way." Littlefoot concluded.

"But..."

"Dismissed." He answered to Taunt's second attempt to speak up and proceeded to turn his back towards the pack.

It took them some time but they all obeyed their leader's order, although he had never before done this to them. The last thing Littlefoot heard before everything went silent were a few bitter sobs, from children and adults alike.

But he was certain that he made the right decision. Maybe he really should have escorted Specter to and back from the Great Valley, but now the black fastbiter was not only metaphorically out of reach. Petrie had told him about his location and the nearby surroundings, and he made it quite clear that, unless the massive fastbiter suddenly learned how to fly, there was no way for Specter back to their territory, meaning there was no way from the territory to Specter, either.

Specter would never return, even if he desperately wanted to.

Both Littlefoot and Petrie were aware of that by now because those 'Far Lands' or 'Outlands' had a different name for them once. It was only as of lately that Littlefoot connected Thud's description of those lands, of earthshakes and gigantic crevices, with what Petrie had told him about their exact location.

 _Home... Old home, even before the valley... So Sharptooth stayed there for all this time... And now... you're with him... hunting for him... killing for him. And those longnecks... that wasn't you, was it? No, you would never do that! You couldn't do that... But... why did you join him? Of all the sharpteeth in the lands... Why him? Why did it have to be him?! Was I... really that bad of a leader and teacher? Did you really hate it here so much? Whatever your intentions... I'm sorry... but I can't help you anymore... I have a family and a pack to take care of... Please don't hate me for this... If we don't see each other again then... at least stay alive out there!_

However, as much as he would've liked to let bygones be bygones when it came to Sharptooth, he couldn't.

 _All of this for nothing... All those lives lost because of you... Everything we've fought for... for nothing... You murdered those longnecks, didn't you, Sharptooth? You forced him to stay with you, isn't that right, you vile bastard? Why couldn't you just stay dead? Just... whose corpse did you find, Red Claw?_

* * *

 **The Outlands:**

Chaser's crashing footsteps made Specter's eyes spring open again. He hadn't found sleep at all, not even the calming sound of the rain managed to grant him that. There was just too much uncertainty for him to relax, and even more horrifying was the thought about telling Chaser the truth about himself. After all, the chances were quite high he wouldn't survive that.

Still, he was determined to tell the two-footer the honest truth. Brutal honesty was what he was known for, so it would've been against his own nature to just keep on lying. Worse even, keeping on lying would result in an, albeit delayed, far more depressing death.

He slowly rose back on his feet, walked out into the open and presented a self-confident stance, as Chaser and Alba came approaching him. Both of them stopped around three meters away from him and he already prepared himself to start this conversation with a, probably to Chaser at least, nasty surprise.

However, Chaser was the one who spoke up first.

"Well, it's finally time. You have proven to be a worthy addition to our pack, Specter. Thus I have decided to consider you one of my close allies. From this day on, your loyalty to me is my loyalty to you. Should the situation demand it, you shall give your life for me, and I shall give mine for you. Every drop of blood taken from you I will avenge with twice the ferocity, while you will do the same, should I ever be struck."

"It would be an honor." Specter stated in return, almost without even thinking about it. He wondered why the two-footer suddenly decided to act like this but he was determined to grasp this opportunity, as this would most likely greatly improve his stance within this pack. Maybe he would be finally in a safe position then.

"So be it. If we do this, we will make a vow. We will swear in blood."

Having said that, the massive sharptooth lowered his body close to the ground and stretched his tiny right arm out to Alba and without hesitation, she bit down on his two-fingered paw. Chaser didn't even contort his face in the slightest, still having the usual piercing stare in his left eye, seemingly staring right into the black fastbiter's heart. Following that, he moved closer to Specter and reached his now slightly bleeding forelimb out to him.

Specter just stood there with a completely overwhelmed and dumbstruck look on his face by now. After all, this was a blood oath, one of the highest and most sacred displays of loyalty, trust and brotherhood. He knew, however, that he could allow himself to not care about that. But he also knew that he would have to act fast. Every blink of an eye he hesitated could mean his demise. Once again, he felt a little bit lost. Littlefoot had never done this ritual with him. The brown fastbiter mentioned making such a vow with another fastbiter called Skytail in the past, who was sadly long since dead, but he had never told him the details. But Specter was quite certain that this would've been unnecessary anyway. After all, this gesture was something humans had done, too.

So he quickly bit down on his own hand which, unlike the two-footer, he didn't need help with and winced, as his sharp teeth penetrated his very own flesh. This was the first time he has seen and smelled his own blood. In this time and with his new body, that was. His blood, which was that of a raptor now. But he ignored the stinging pain as best as he could and reached out his right forelimb, too.

And as the two-footer and the fastbiter joined their paws, as the blood of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the king of all predators, mixed with that of a Utahraptor who had been a human once, those that stole the crown from nature itself, as two beings, which were in more ways than one supposed to be over 65 million years apart, shared their lifeblood and forged a bond that would outlast everything, Chaser raised his bassy voice once more.

"We will shed blood for one another as we have shed blood today."

"Until death." Specter affirmed in his slightly higher pitched voice. He had no idea if he was actually supposed to say anything but he figured that this was the most logical conclusion. After all, a blood oath was supposed to last until one of the blood brethren died. Even beyond that, actually. And he also figured that telling Chaser the truth about himself after this ritual would probably not get him killed any longer. Once more in his life, he was beyond lucky. Even someone like Chaser would never dare to raise a claw against a blood brother, Specter figured.

"Until death." Chaser repeated in his usual, firm voice.

 _I've misjudged you, Sharptooth. Maybe... you're not such a bad guy, after all..._ Specter quickly noted to himself with an inner smile of satisfaction and relief.

The last two things he saw before realizing his false assessment were Chaser's dirty smirk and Alba's widely opened blue eyes.

 _Why is she...?_

 **Chomp! Crack!**

Were it not for his extremely fast reflexes and moderately high agility, the six-ton bite force of the two-footer would have crushed every single bone in his upper body. By just a mere fractions, Specter managed to retract his bleeding forelimb and evade that sudden attack by jumping backwards and instead of his feathered skin, Chaser's teeth dug into the ground. But he had no time whatsoever to relax now, as Chaser was already eyeing him once more with a murderous stare.

For just a split second, Specter looked over at Alba with confusion, horror and fear in his eyes, unable to speak any words. His gaze communicated nothing but one thing.

 _Help me! Please!  
_

But she answered with a quick shake of her head. He realized now that he was all alone in this. He always has been. He always would be.

And now, he would die.

Maybe he had expected to get out of this alive. Again, like with the other few of his fights. Somehow, by a stroke of luck or through his instincts. Two-footers were supposed to be quite slow and his quick fight against Thrasher had pretty much proven him that. Only that he had received help back then and still almost died. And now, he wasn't fighting an injured two-footer or a hot-headed threehorn anymore. His instincts couldn't save him anymore.

The next attack from Chaser came instantly, with a speed Specter had only seen in experienced fastbiters such as Littlefoot so far.

 **Chomp!**

This time, he managed to evade the bite with a quick leap to his right. But that was the foolish mistake Chaser had only waited for.

 **Smack!**

The brutal slap from Chaser's tail to his unprotected side threw Specter almost ten meters through the air and with a loud thud, he finally landed on the wet ground.

He was whimpering in pain, unable to stand up anymore, tears of agony and regret running down his face, only awaiting to take his last few hasty breaths until the 60 razor-sharp teeth of the Tyrannosaurus would finally put him out of his misery with a bone-crunching bite. All of his ambitions were gone now. All of his dreams, hopes and wishes with them. He had so much hoped to live a normal life in this time now.

It would've been a hard, unforgiving and lonely life with nobody he could ever fully relate to but at least it would've been a life. It would've been his life.

And so it was finally his turn to see his lives flash before his eyes. Starting with his first and already lost life. How he grew up for 21 years in safety as a human, trying to find his place in the world. Everything he had worked so hard for to call it a profession of his. Learning to walk, learning to speak, learning to play his guitar, learning to drive a car, studying economics to become a successful man at some point in his life. The friends he had made, the friends he had lost. Up until the night where he touched that cursed Stone and lost everything, where he already died his first death.

Only to rise again as a massive Utahraptor and work hard once more. Only to start all over again. Learning to walk once more, learning to speak another language once more, hunting, killing, stealing eggs, forging bonds, maybe to become a respected fastbiter at some point in this new life. And now, he would lose everything yet again. Together with his new life. Together with his second and definitive life.

And as the crashing footsteps once again came closer to him until they stopped right next to his head, all his thoughts were gone. Before he closed his eyes, he could still make out Chaser's three menacing foot claws hovering above him.

What remained was darkness and fear. And following that...

 _Why? Why... me? What... did I do wrong...? Why can't... I just live...? Please... just... make it quick... Please... don't... hurt...  
_

 **Stomp! Crack!**

Dead silence.

Chaser raised his foot again and slowly turned around to Alba, who just looked at him with an indifferent face by now.

"Give blood to blood." She finished the actual ending of the fastbiter blood oath. "Was that really necessary?"

"I've told him to not lie to me." Chaser responded, not even exhausted in the slightest, and turned around to Specter's body again.

 _Hmm... You're weak, pathetically slow for a fastbiter and fearful... But you're also intelligent, fast enough for your size, still young and quite determined. Yes... I think I can work with that... You can still be shaped..._

"Quit pretending you're dead, fuzzball." He finally spoke up in a heavily annoyed, stern voice. "That was just the start. You have a _lot_ of explaining to do. And next time, I won't be so lenient."

Having said that, he turned around for the third time, walked up right next to Alba and quickly bowed his head down close to hers.

"Look after him. I want him to be in his best shape by tomorrow." He said, and after seeing her slightly annoyed expression, he added an addition. "That's an order."

In the end, Alba gave Chaser a firm nod. She waited until he left the clearing before turning her attention back to Specter.

 _He wasn't even trying and you still didn't stand a chance. You don't even know how to make the fastbiter vow. Just... what... are you?_

But as much as she would've liked to ignore Chaser's order and leave that pathetic weakling, freak and liar to his fate, she couldn't. He reminded her so much of herself, of everything she had been through in her life, of how her very own siblings had sometimes tried to kill her because of how she looked and how weak she was in comparison to them. The only reason why she was still alive was her mother and even more so her brother, Shade. They had always been understanding, and even though Shade formed a new pack with two of their siblings, he still returned to her after he lost them and still saved her yet again from her demise.

Maybe, she figured, it was time for her to act a little bit like him. So she went over to Specter's prone body and eyed him for a while, especially the big crater right next to his head.

 _What does he see in you? Why does he think it's worth keeping someone like you?_

Before she could act, however, Specter shakily rose back on his feet by himself and limped slowly towards the sheltering rock, resting himself there once more.

 _Hmm... We will see..._

Alba let out a slight sigh and followed after him.

* * *

 **Some time later:**

"What the heck happened here?" Shade asked, partly curious, partly surprised, partly in jest, as soon as he finished analyzing the scenery. The Sky Water had already stopped coming down but he could still quite clearly see a few black feathers lying in the mud and a particularly large crater next to them, which was filled with water by now.

"Our two big boys made friends with each other. That's what." His sister responded, curled up and lying next to another big point of interest.

He switched his attention to the dirty, ruffled form of Specter, who was sleeping beneath the sheltering rock now, and facepalmed himself with his remaining hand before speaking up again.

"Not even here for a single day and already trying to get himself killed... Ugh... Just great..."

* * *

 **And this is how I would like to conclude this chapter. It's a lot shorter than the latest ones but I wanted to keep it in line with the title and overall theme of it. That being said, I think the next one might be a bit longer again.  
**

 **Hope you still enjoy!**

 **Until next time.**


	15. Chapter 14: Bonds

**Chapter 14: Bonds**

 _ **"I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other." - Rainer Maria Rilke  
**_

"Rise and shine, fuzzball!"

Specter awoke to the sight of Shade's sunset-lit yellow eyes and heavily scarred face right next to his own. Just a few hours ago, he probably would've jerked back or lashed out with his claws at the dark blue fastbiter. But not anymore. The beating he received from Chaser really knocked some sense into him, quite literally, he deduced. It was only when the two-footer was about to stomp down right on his head, not even granting him an honorable death but instead crushing him like a pathetic little fly, that he realized something, which was that he had been just way too confident with himself. Overconfident, actually.

He was completely aware of his lack of fighting skills but had never imagined it would be _this_ bad. In the time with his original pack, he had often watched them in their training fights and somehow wished he could've taken part in them, but soon understood that this would've simply not worked out. Their protective vine armors, just another one of those little things they shouldn't even know of which made him almost faint in shock after seeing it, simply didn't fit his oversized body. Combined with his extreme weight for a raptor, he really wasn't suited to train with other, normal sized ones of his kind. Chomper might've been a good sparring partner because the adolescent Tyrannosaurus pretty much matched him at least in size, but in the end, Specter left for the valley before he had even thought about asking him. So until lately, he had always tried to connect what he knew about hunting with actual combat. But of course, the few swimmers or longnecks he's hunted thus far were either defenseless or too slow to even remotely endanger him, and having had an unfair advantage over other sharpteeth, namely his spear, made killing them almost casual. Sure, he could've easily crafted himself a new 'advantage' but he refused to do it. He was determined to learn how to fight with the weapons of this time from now on.

But that didn't matter anymore, for now at least. What he really wondered was why Chaser let him alive. Surely, after his pathetic display against him, the two-footer must've seen how useless he was. And he really didn't seem like the guy who would be caring, empathic and understanding, or who would sacrifice several weeks or even months of his time to train him.

 _Hmm... Maybe it's because of the blood oath... But why did he do it in the first place then? Why take that risk? He must've known this would happen after how I behaved with Arga... That bastard... No... I'm the idiot. This is my own fault..._

He also noticed that it has become a lot more analytic and much quieter in his head. As analytic and quiet as it usually was, though it just felt different now. As if he had finally adapted to the new mindset he needed in this time. As if he had finally realized how much he actually still had to learn and how weak he was. And most of all, as if he had finally realized how desperately he wanted to change that.

"Yes, Shade?" He asked calmly after his minute of pondering, slowly raising his head in the air. "What is it?"

"I've heard Chaser snubbed you good, huh?" Shade responded with a faint smile.

"He tried to kill me..." Specter retorted with the slightest note of insult. But there was no hate or anger in his voice, nor in his scents. And that had nothing to do with his special 'abilities'.

"No, he didn't." Shade just said, still smiling, and proceeded to point at his own face. " _That's_ how it looks like when he tries to kill you."

Specter's eyes widened for just a second and he was already in the process of formulating the inevitable question, but Shade firmly continued.

"Don't ask. That story is best told by all three of us... Anyway, I was just about to fetch my food. Would you like to accompany me?"

 _'Fetch' his food? What the hell does he mean by...?_

Specter quickly glanced at Alba, who was sleeping right next to him, and drew the obvious conclusion.

 _She's still here, slow heartbeat, relaxed... So... he's hunted by himself? How can...? Well, I'm sure he can but... Oh... So that's why he wants me to come along..._

"I'm not really hungry, to be honest..." He said after another while, although the actual truth lay hidden in his thoughts.

 _I can't embarrass myself in front of him, too..._

"I don't know what Chaser has planned for you tomorrow, but it will start early. For your own good, I would suggest you have an additional meal now. Let's get you cleaned up first, though."

Shade gave him another friendly smile but Specter needed a bit to think about this. As a human, hunger and thirst were feelings he had been easily able to push aside, his ectomorphic body type granted him that. Sadly, he deduced, of the few things that carried over to his new form, those were not part of it. So in the end, he couldn't really disagree. Especially not to cleaning his dirty and sticky feathers

"You're right, I guess. Ok, take point."

Having said that, he rose to his full height and walked out in the open. Before both of them left the scene, Specter took one last look at Alba.

 _I know what you're thinking... I would probably think even worse... And_ _ _ _I've heard what Chaser told you... b__ ut still... Thank you... for giving such a loser like me some company... even if it's just an order... __I'll make it up to you, I promise._

* * *

The two fastbiters were traveling for a good half an hour already in a speedy fashion but none of them had spoken a single word.

"Not really the most talkative guy, are you?" Shade finally remarked in his distinctive, humorous tone.

"I never was. I'm sorry, it's just that..."

"It's alright." He said after noticing that Specter wouldn't finish his sentence, speaking in a dead serious tone now. "No need to explain. Just trying to lighten up your mood."

Although it was very faint, Specter had to smile at this. It was almost surreal how annoying he'd found this dark blue fastbiter when he first met him, but now, not even a day after, he actually felt like he could relate to him. Another loner, seeking for a tiny bit of companionship in a world where almost everyone was an adversary to another, and where a pack, at least for sharpteeth, was the replacement for the family some would lose early on in their lives.

And each of these two raptors had already lost two families. Just that none of them was consciously aware of that and the circumstances had been a lot different, of course.

Another five minutes went by and Shade stopped for a second to sniff the air a few times.

"Alright, we're almost there."

"Yeah, I know..." Specter responded with a hint of sadness, although he kept this hidden as best as he could.

The blue fastbiter eyed him in surprise for a while but soon spoke up in his usual tone again.

"Ah, of course! Big sharptooth, good sniffer."

"Not only that..." Came Specter's answer, and both hunters resumed their movement.

He pretty much knew already what Shade had done on his solo hunt and what he probably planned to do now. It was not what he had assumed right away, which was that Shade might've let his prey slowly bleed out and only needed him as backup, but very similar to it. Way worse, being honest with himself. The painful leaf-eater wails in the distance, which his excellent ears managed to pick up, and the slight smell of young longneck blood were not exactly soothing perceptions. To him, at least. To Shade on the other hand, it would be just daily business of a solitary hunter. It would be just the next meal for him. Shade belonged in this time and hatched as a fastbiter, and if his plan was how Specter imagined it, it was as incredibly smart as it was brutal and heartless. But Specter knew he couldn't judge him for that. No, even more so, he wasn't allowed to judge him for that. It was just not his right.

There were no rules in hunting and killing, and fairness was only a massive disadvantage. A disadvantage Specter was happy to have for himself, but expecting others to share his own code would've been just outright stupid and naive. After all, having lost his left forelimb, Shade already was at such a disadvantage.

After another few minutes, the two predators came to a halt and Shade gestured for Specter to lower his voice from now on. Specter nodded at this and situated himself next to his hunting partner, who sat down between some bushes in a large clearing.

And then, around 50 meters away from him, he finally laid eyes on Shade's 'preparation', which was the source of the scents and heartbreaking sounds.

A small, male longneck youngling, an Apatosaurus, maybe just over a meter tall, one of his front and one of his hind legs rendered useless by accurate slices at critical points. What really made something in Specter's stomach turn at this sight, however, were the longneck's colors.

Brown, with just a faint tone of red across his back running along to his tail.

 _He looks so much like Seeker... So much like... how... Littlefoot... must've looked like..._

"What is he saying?"

Specter snapped out of his thoughts, switched his attention over to Shade and gave him a shocked and asking look, which Shade noticed and elaborated.

"I know you speak their language. The spiketail yesterday. You talked to him, didn't you?"

Specter looked at the ground for a second, cursing himself that he had actually done that and thus forcing him to be a translator now. Even though his feathers were still wet with water, meaning that he might've been able to blatantly lie without Shade noticing it, he wanted to tell the truth from now on.

"He's... crying out for his mother... Over and over..."

"Good." Shade responded in satisfaction, without any joy, however. "She's the target."

As painful as this was for Specter, and as much as he would've liked to dismiss how much he actually wanted to learn the leaf-eater language for quite some time and how happy he was when he started speaking complete sentences in it, this ghastly scene brought back all the memories from his time with Littlefoot's pack. Especially the hunt five days prior to the night where he left them.

* * *

 **Three weeks ago, five days prior to Chapter 5:**

"Are you sure I'm already up for this? I mean... that's an adult longneck were talking about..."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." Littlefoot responded. "We don't even need to separate her from the herd, and we will take over the difficult part. Your job is only to take down and kill her. I've seen you train a lot lately. Wouldn't you like to test out what you've learned so far?"

 _And that's what you would call 'only' as in 'easy'?!_ Specter quickly noted to himself.

"I've trained on some trees, Seeker... Trees don't have a tail or legs that can break all my bones in one hit."

"True, but I saw what those trees looked like after you were done with them. Just remember what I've shown you. Jump, climb, slice, kill. Bringing down adult longnecks is no easy task but I'm sure you will manage. Gee, Specter, you're basically made for this." Littlefoot said with a smile and pointed at Specter's sickle claws.

Specter let out a sigh but nodded at this.

"Yeah, you're right... I guess. So, what kind of longneck are we talking about?"

"The same kind as the one on your first hunt, just that it's an adult now. She's from a different herd as well."

 _Another Alamosaurus then... An adult, so around four meters tall maybe... Alright, that should be... Might be doable..._

"Ok, I'll do my best." Specter concluded.

With that, the two hunters started moving towards the meeting point.

* * *

"Eww! Fucking hell! What is that stench?!"

Littlefoot laughed heartily at Specter's exclamation and how he tried to block his nostrils with his hands.

"Yellow tree sweets, my friend. Would you like to taste one?"

His question was retorted with Specter's insulting middle finger gesture, to which Littlefoot had to laugh even harder.

"There's the downside of having a good sniffer. Why do you think Path refused to hunt with us today?"

 _Jesus Christ, this stinks worse than a rotten corpse! No wonder Path rather hunted alone... To a Tyrannosaurus, this must smell like a mass grave..._ Specter thought to himself in disgust.

"You will get used to it, eventually." Littlefoot offered with a smile.

When they finally reached their destination, a rather large clearing with five big trees which carried those to a carnivore foul-smelling fruits, Specter laid down on his haunches, grabbed a rather big leaf from the nearest plant and covered his snout with it. The stench was still overwhelming to him, to the point where he was starting to get a headache, but at least it was not the dominant scent anymore, he figured.

"Why are we even...?" Specter already started to question, but then saw that a few of the fruits lay on the ground and formed some sort of a loose trail, leading away from the trees. Or rather leading _to_ them. "No, wait. Let me guess... To leaf-eaters, those things must smell good. So you're luring the longneck here with those 'tree sweets'..."

 _The oldest trick in the world... Damn, quite literally! If this actually works, herbivores are officially retarded... Who would fall for that shit?!_

Littlefoot gave him a happy nod.

"Yep. It was..."

"Finder's idea. Right?" Specter finished for Littlefoot and now both of them had to laugh.

 _He was a Stegosaurus, those dudes eat a lot and are not the brightest, to be honest. Brain with the size of a walnut and all... Becoming a raptor must've been a whole new world for him... But this plan? Well, if it works, it ain't stupid, I guess... Hmm... I wonder how big my own brain is now. Should be so much smaller than my last but I can't notice the difference... Oh well, maybe science was wrong for once..._ Specter noted to himself in his amusement.

But Littlefoot was quick to calm down again and put a hand on Specter's back, which he could only reach because the black fastbiter was sitting now.

 **"How's your leaf-eater? Are you making good progress?"**

 **"Yes. It shall be good enough by yet... I am think."** Specter responded and cringed slightly as he went over his own sentence again.

"I still can't believe how fast you're learning. You never cease to amaze me." Littlefoot then spoke in sharptooth again. But when he continued, his voice dropped most of the joy and happiness it carried before. "It won't be much longer now. Before we start, I want to give you one last piece of advice."

Specter threw his protective leaf away and gave him an asking but also highly attentive look.

"Don't listen. No matter what your target is saying, pretend to not hear it. Knowing leaf-eater as a sharptooth is as much a gift as it is a curse..."

After hearing this, Specter couldn't help but look at the ground. This was exactly what he was afraid of. He had quickly realized after his first training session with Chomper that trying to 'apologize' to his targets' families was the most retarded idea he ever had in his life, but he had yet to hunt something he was able to understand on the one hand, but on the other hand wasn't able to kill quick enough for it to stay silent. With this adult longneck, however, that moment has probably come at last.

"Understood." He gave his firm response in the end. "But... Please don't go too hard on me if I... You know..."

"Don't worry." Littlefoot reassured him in his usual, understanding and caring tone. "There's no shame in that. You will have to cope with it at some point, but if you can't do it today, I will do it for you."

Specter gave him a thankful smile and a short bow of his head.

"Thank..."

"My, my! Did I just interrupt a courtship ritual?"

Littlefoot was quick to retract his hand from Specter's back and both fastbiters rolled their eyes at the obvious intruder's appearance from behind them.

"It certainly was more romantic than what you did for me, _dear_." Cera made herself known, too.

Taunt's angry growl loosened the scene up again, and Specter found that the orange fastbiter and his yellow mate, who was a former threehorn after all, once again managed to lift his mood with their antics.

"Everyone's ready and everything's set, Seeker." Cera reported afterwards. "We're just waiting for Spotter's call."

"Good. Let's move into our positions then." Littlefoot said and looked at Specter. "You should stay here and wait for the right moment. You will see when it's time. May your strikes be swift like the wind!"

"May yours be a storm!" Specter improvised, but seeing how the other fastbiters nodded in satisfaction, he deduced that he was starting to get the hang of this time's language and expected behavior.

* * *

 **Caw!**

Just moments after Petrie's call from high up in the skies, Specter could feel the ground below him starting to tremble. A calm and rhythmic rumbling that actually made him feel quite relaxed right now.

 _Alright, there she comes... They're gonna do this with the whole pack today. Can't wait to see the show!_

Even though it would be a bloodbath and he would be the one to have the last drops of life essence of the prey on his claws, he was very much looking forward to this. Over the past weeks, the pack had mostly gone after swimmers or smaller longnecks and used their spears to kill some of them, but this right here would be the first hunt Specter saw in his two lives where he could watch the raw power of nature at work.

David versus Goliath in this case. Counting himself, nine deadly killing machines against one behemoth. But unlike in the myths of course, the behemoth was actually the peaceful one. The one that didn't really deserve to die but just had to, to sustain some others with meat and blood.

The rumbling grew louder and he soon laid eyes on the target.

The huge female longneck was finally making her way into the clearing and just as Spike predicted with his plan, she was a good girl and followed the trail of fruits the pack had prepared without caring about a thing in the world. Mostly being former leaf-eaters themselves, the pack was obviously aware that herbivores thought to be safe around these tasty tree sweets, as their strong, sweet odor would surely repel even the most terrifying sharpteeth. However, that longneck was just as obviously not aware of the pack's past. And that would be her demise.

Still, right now, Specter could only watch the longneck in awe from his position in the shadows of this afternoon.

 _Simply... magnificent! I could watch them all day just walk across the lands..._

He was already beginning to question if he really regretted his wish upon the stone. Sure, he would soon strike off to the Great Valley and never see those friendly raptors, the lively pterosaurs or the gentle Tyrannosaurus again, but at least for those last few days before returning to his time or wandering far away, he wanted to take in as much as he could from this prehistoric world.

But he soon got shaken back into reality, as the longneck started holding a happy little monologue. His leaf-eater was still not perfect, but it was good enough to understand her words and the joy in her voice.

 **"Yes! Tree sweets! I knew they are here! Mommy and daddy will love to get those a few of for their mating day!"**

And it was now that he realized why he got used to this time so quickly. Because those animals many humans had thought of as heartless and emotionless monsters, herbivore and carnivore alike, actually had feelings and could speak. He never was one of those people who questioned this, but experiencing with his own eyes and ears that he was right in the end was as satisfying as it was heartbreaking and cruel. Because those dinosaurs here, he deduced, were almost human. He would basically kill another human and eat it. At least from a _very_ philosophical point of view, only taking into consideration that he could understand their words and emotions, this was how he thought about it now.

Whatever way he put it though, he was at the top of the food chain and that longneck was close to the bottom. He was the killer and she was the victim. He was the predator, she was the prey. This concept was far easier for him to grasp and there was nothing philosophical about that.

 _I can never go back on this... I will never be the same but... for now at least, this is me. I am a raptor. I am a killer... and I... will kill you..._

By now, the longneck had already reached the big trees, ate a few fruits and started picking them, carefully collecting them on the ground on another big leaf.

 **"They taste so good! Ok, this shall do. I can't wait to..."**

 **Screech!**

She didn't even have time to bellow the sharptooth alarm call, as eight fastbiters charged right at her from out of the many bushes, from all sides.

 **Shluck! Slice! Slice! Shluck!  
**

Within seconds, the longneck's warm, greenish colors almost disappeared under huge gashes and ripped out flesh. Her whole body was basically covered with fastbiters and she had no chance shaking off even one of them. The moment one of the sharpteeth let go of her flesh, another took its position and continued, while the first one circled around and jumped up her other side, brutally cutting wounds into her skin there now.

 _Like clockwork... Perfect... Amazing... and yet... so terrifying...  
_

Specter prepared himself to join the fight as well soon, but he was almost petrified by how the eight Utahraptors worked together. Not even once did one of them make contact with or block another. This was a hunting pack in its prime. It still made him kinda sad how the longneck was screaming in pain, but that was something he had already gotten used to. There was no other way around killing such massive beasts.

 _Just... pretend I can't hear her..._

And then finally, he could make out a change in the pack's attack pattern.

Six of them ran circles around the massive herbivore and she was trying her utmost to hit them with her tail or legs, but the fastbiters were simply too fast. Only when she noticed that two sharpteeth had disappeared, she realized her mistake.

 **Screech! Slice!**

Breeze and Leap were the two sharpteeth the longneck had forgotten about. Each of them jumped at one of her hind legs in unison and sliced massive wounds into their targets. They ripped through her muscles and she couldn't hold her weight anymore. Her hind legs gave in and she crashed onto the ground with her behind, still trying to stand up with her front legs.

 _This is my opportunity...  
_

Seeing how all the other fastbiters were now waiting on the ground, Specter didn't hesitate for a single second and exploded into a sprint from his position.

 _50, 40, 30, 20, 10..._

Like always, he calculated the distance to his prey and readied his powerful legs. When he was those ten meters away, he bent his tail down.

 _Jump!_

As he was flying through the air, his and the longneck's eyes met for just a split second. Her shocked and painful expression might've caused him to give in, were he still on the ground, but it was far too late for that now.

 **Shluck!**

His sickle claws dug deep into her side, which was followed by another heartbreaking scream of agony.

 _Climb!_

Like a mountaineer, using his sickle claws as spikes, he ripped his claws out and leapt upwards. The longneck tried to use her head to smack him away but even such a massive fastbiter like himself was too quick for her. He stood on her back now, jumped to the air another time, spun around and extended his claws for the crippling blow.

 _Slice!_

And then he made contact with the flesh on her other side. The longneck's wounds were too deep and her skin couldn't hold his immense weight anymore. Specter's weight of around a whole ton combined with his sharp sickle claws unleashed its effects.

 **Slice!**

For several seconds, the sound of ripping flesh and skin could be heard as Specter teared the leaf-eater's whole left side open. When he reached her abdominal area, he finally jumped away from her and took a few steps back.

The longneck's innards already started emerging from the deep cut around her belly, her eyes moving into all directions in pain. And then she finally lost all her remaining strength and fell over to her left side.

 **Crash!**

Panting heavily, he stood right in front of her shredded body with the whole pack patiently waiting behind him, still.

 _And now... Kill..._

He began another sprint, jumped over her neck and stopped at her throat almost right in front of her big head. This was his moment now, to show what he has learned so far and that he could blend out his feelings when necessary.

And yet, he hesitated. He desperately wanted to end it now but something was holding him back. His brain was flooded with adrenaline and his heart was beating in a tremendously high frequency. But with a shake of his head, he shook this off with it and once more prepared his claws.

"Please..."

The longneck's broken voice was a mixture of pain and despair, but Specter just knew she wouldn't stop there. And also, for some reason, it felt like he understood that language perfectly now.

"Please... don't kill me... I... have... children..."

He showed the slightest contortion on his face.

The longneck didn't know if he could actually understand what she was saying but, considering he still hesitated to kill her, it seemed like he was listening in some way, so she wanted to try another method. Not to convince him to spare her life anymore, however, as she realized herself by now that she would not survive this. So, after taking a shuddering breath, she spoke up for one last time.

"You... monster... You... cold... 'thing'... Don't you... have a heart...?"

This was what finally made him grimace for real and snap out of it for good. Suddenly, he could feel severe anger building up inside of him. He took a deep breath of his own and gave his answer to that.

 **"No."**

 **Slice! Slice!**

For a few seconds, nasty gurgling sounds could be heard from her throat. Following that, all was still.

 _Not anymore..._ Specter finished in his mind.

Blood-soaked and still breathing heavily, he just stood there in silence for a while until he could feel a bit of pressure on his side, caused by a comforting paw placed there. He was flanked by Ruby and Littlefoot now, and it was Ruby how gave him that sign of support.

"Are you alright?" She carefully asked.

"Never better..." He gave his bitter answer.

It would've remained a grave scene but just moments later, the complete pack assembled cheerfully around the three predators and their many children started moving out of the underbrush as well. It didn't take much longer for the first three little fuzzballs to leap at Specter's side, using their sickle claws to hook themselves into his feathers and finally jump on his back.

"That was amazing!" Sprint exclaimed.

"Yeah! That longneck had no chance!" Pouncer affirmed.

"Of course it was amazing! My dad taught him that!" Biter concluded.

And as strange as it was for him, Specter had to smile again. It was a sad and painful smile, but it was a smile.

* * *

 **The present:**

He wasn't smiling now, however. Not even the funniest joke in the universe could've made him smile when a terribly suffering child was just a few jumps away from him, no matter which side of the food chain.

It was one of the worst possible situations to have a little chat, Specter figured, but he really wanted to use the time until the longneck youngling's mother showed up to ask Shade some questions.

"Can't... you speak it? Chaser told me he used the same trick that I used on the longclaw, too, and he said it was your idea."

"Did he now? It seems like our two-footer has become humble, huh? Well, no, I can't speak it... Neither of us can. However, just like Chaser, I listen and observe. And besides, their alarm call really isn't that hard to mimic." Shade responded with a smirk.

Specter nodded at this but wanted to inquire further.

"And... why are you doing this? I mean... Why are you hunting alone? Why are you risking your life like that? I... could've helped you... Chaser could've helped you. And what about your sister?"

Shade let out a light laugh at this.

"Thanks, but no. This is my path and I walk it alone. When the time comes, you will understand why. For now, let's just say it reminds me of how much I've screwed up in my life. Concerning Alba... I'm also doing this for her. She can only get her meals in the night and she's gone through a lot already... All of us have..."

Having said that, he raised his forelimbs close to his face and clenched his right-hand claws a few times, only looking at his left forelimb, however, which was nothing more than a stump, and continued.

"I can still feel them... It's like... they're still there... It still hurts... It still reminds me... It will never stop..."

"Phantom pain..." Specter spoke without thinking, but Shade's asking look forced him to reformulate that. "Never mind... I'm sorry... I won't ask again."

"No need to be sorry." Shade spoke in a firm voice again. "Like I said, when the time comes, I will tell you. Just not now."

Specter gave him a sure nod and decided to keep his mouth shut from now on. He really wondered how Shade had lost his left arm but it would've been just unfitting to ask about that just yet. And even though Shade had basically forced him to take part in another hunt, just like he had basically forced him to join this pack just a day ago, he couldn't really hold it against him. His deep respect for this dark blue fastbiter was growing by the minute, actually. More so, he deduced that he could still learn a lot from Shade's devotion to his loved ones and loyalty to his pack. The pack he had lost and the pack he belonged to now alike.

What else was growing by the minute with ever so increasing intensity was the rumbling of the ground below both of them.

 _Alright... It's time... again..._ Specter noted to himself and tried to stand up.

Only for Shade to jump up first, put his right hand on his back and push him back down.

"Thanks for giving me some company so far. I really appreciate it. But this is my hunt. We'll talk afterwards." Shade explained before Specter could even mount a reaction.

 _He wants to take on an adult longneck alone?! Is he out of his mind?!_ Specter thought to himself in shock.

Shade noticed this and gave him another smirk.

"Just watch. Maybe you'll learn some."

The confidence in his voice alone prompted Specter to keep silent and obey him. He was heavily concerned about Shade's mind and wondered if he had suddenly lost his sanity over the last few minutes, but decided to keep a low profile.

 _I can't believe this guy... How does he plan to kill a full-grown Sauropod of any kind all by himself? Chaser can do it, Path should be able to do it, but you? You're a raptor, Shade, not a T-Rex..._

"May your strikes be swift like the wind." He finally offered, regardless of his concerns.

"They'll be a storm." Shade affirmed and turned towards the oncoming scents and crashing sounds.

What Specter now couldn't see anymore was the deadpanned expression on his face. This was Shade in his hunting mode. He liked being a jester around everyone, he liked lifting the mood of others with his antics, but as soon as there was a hunt to attend to, he turned into a silent killer. Apart from staying silent on his hunts, he was just like every other sharptooth in that regard, very true, yet there has always been something different about him. Ever since that one, fateful day.

To Shade, a solitary hunt for much bigger prey was like a courtship dance with death.

 _I will never be any closer to you again, my friends... Once more, let me reach out for you. Let me be close to you...  
_

With these final thoughts, he slowly walked towards the longneck youngling. As soon as the little leaf-eater saw his tormentor from earlier again, his eyes widened in shock and he started screaming even harder. But Shade didn't plan on killing him just yet. Instead, he moved just behind the little longneck and waited. The youngling tried to crawl away from him but his two destroyed legs prevented him from doing so with brutal efficiency. Shade had seen to that.

Just moments later, the adult, bluish, female longneck finally made her way onto the scene as well and stared in horror and anger at her heavily injured son and the dark-colored fastbiter right behind him.

Shade stepped on the youngling's back with his right foot. He could already see the adult beginning to quake but she was still petrified by this, not attacking just yet. Not for much longer, however, as Shade buried his sickle claw deep into her child's back.

The painful scream the youngling let out after this finally made something snap inside his mother and she started her charge.

 _Let's dance._

Following his line of thinking, Shade ripped his claw out and jumped one step back from the still living child.

Specter just stared in utter horror and disbelief at this strategy from his position on the sideline. Somehow, he had only waited for something like this to happen but right now, he feared more for Shade's life than for his own ethics. And also, he couldn't help but admire this ruthless plan in some way.

 _At least if a whole pack would be at work here... You're alone and you've made yourself her main target now... a decoy without support... What are you thinking?_

It would become quite apparent to him what Shade was thinking now, as the longneck stopped her charge right in front of her own child with him still standing closely behind the youngling. Obviously, she couldn't just trample both dinosaurs in front of her. One false move, whether it would be a strike from her tail or a stomp with her feet, could potentially crush her very own offspring.

And Shade has perfectly used the time of her charge and hesitation for his analyzing.

 _She puts a lot of her weight on her right side and now that she's standing, she's putting it on her left. So a strong attack would come from my left while a strike from my right would be unprecise and hasty._

He made up his mind. Seemingly making a mistake, he shifted over to his right and thus away from the youngling, presenting a blatant opening for an attack. The adult reacted immediately. She lashed out with her tail at him and already rose her left front leg for a stomp that would crush the fastbiter.

Her first and final mistake.

As Shade had predicted, the strike from the longneck's enormous tail was still accurate but he managed to evade that attack easily by just jumping over it. The moment his feet hit the ground afterwards, he swung his own tail to the left and his whole body with it.

 **Crash!**

Even from where he was sitting, Specter could feel the shockwave of that stomp coming from the five meter tall Apatosaurus female.

The few moments after this attack were Shade's timeframe. The longneck had missed him by mere fractions but that was exactly what he wanted. Once more, he bent his tail down and propelled himself upwards. He didn't touch the ground anymore. Instead, his sickle claws pierced the longneck's left front leg and she instantly pulled it up in pain, which enabled Shade to use that momentum to gain even more height.

His next two jumps threw him up his prey's back, and now the longneck had no way of defending herself anymore, as Shade was standing at the base of her neck where she couldn't reach him.

 _Time to finish this..._

He jumped forwards and on her neck, took another jump upwards and then finally used his right forelimb to swing himself around to her throat and put his sickle claws to use.

 **Slice!**

The sound of ripping flesh only stopped when he arrived at the base of her neck again, on the other side now, with her whole throat vertically cut wide open. Following that, he jumped to the side, hooked into one of her legs again and finally landed on the ground with a soft thud.

Slightly covered in blood and with deep calmness, he watched the longneck starting to stagger and slowly lose her balance while her eyes already lost focus and turned white.

 **Crash!**

And with an ear-shattering thump, the huge leaf-eater fell over to the side.

It was only now that Specter noticed his mouth hang wide agape. In not even 30 seconds, Shade had managed to kill a healthy adult longneck all alone, without any support or taking injuries. This was by far the most frightening display of a kill he had ever seen or could have ever imagined in his life. Everything about this whole hunt was just insanely brutal but the sheer effectiveness was undeniable.

But there was still one thing immensely bothering him, so he jumped up and ran over to the successful predator, situating himself slightly behind him.

"See? Not that hard when you know what you're doing." Shade spoke up first.

"What about him?" Specter immediately asked and gestured at the longneck youngling, who was still alive and suffering immensely under his wounds and what had just happened to his mother.

"Why he's yours, of course! You can have some of the adult, too. Sharing is caring!" Came the joyful answer.

Specter gulped at this in massive discomfort, he didn't even know why, but definitely wanted to finish off the little longneck before wasting any more time with his pondering. This was truly only an act of mercy by now, he deduced.

So he turned away from Shade, walked over to the youngling and eyed him for just a second.

 _He's almost dead, anyway... Fucking hell, Shade, couldn't you have at least told me outright that you had something like this is mind? Crazy bastard...  
_

He let out a deep sigh, bit down on the leaf-eater's neck and twisted his head.

 **Crack!**

The youngling's shuddering breaths finally stopped and he went limp.

Specter was very pleased with himself that he had finally adapted to this life, that this has finally become his new normal. His old point of view simply didn't work anymore and especially after seeing how Shade behaved, he came to terms with the possibility that he could be a cold-hearted killer on his hunts, but a just as much loving as caring friend and companion to his allies and pack. Those two sides of a hunter's life never contradicted each other in the first place, being honest with himself. Littlefoot and his pack had already taught him that but they were a lot less ruthless on their hunts at least. Well, he believed in their stories so he was also aware that they sometimes had been, when the need arose.

He walked over to Shade again.

"So... What did _she_ say?" The blue fastbiter asked into the distance.

Specter's answer came without hesitation this time.

"She said you're a heartless monster and she will kill you for that."

Shade suddenly let out an amused laugh at this.

"Well, well. A sap-sucker being right for once."

"What do you mean?" Specter asked in surprise.

"We _are_ monsters, Specter. We kill to live. That's how we survive." Shade said and chuckled lightly before he finished his point. "But I think it annoys them somehow... that we're the better monsters."

Specter was dumbstruck by that but for some reason, he couldn't help but faintly laugh himself. He didn't say anything in return, however. Simply because he didn't even know what to answer.

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

The long since risen Night Circle encouraged Littlefoot to finally go to sleep himself. Today's hunt went smooth like always and he was quite happy to have done some tracking again, even though Petrie returned in time, too, but the decision he made at the meeting with the pack earlier left noticeable marks, especially the way he communicated it. Nobody went as far as even mentioning the topic again but at the same time he could just feel that everyone was unhappy with his decision. And he could understand that. He himself was anything but happy with it. It certainly was not his style to hold back knowledge, just as it wasn't Ruby's or any of his other friends', but he felt like he just had to do it in this case.

For now, he was just looking forward to concluding this emotionally challenging day with a good night's sleep. So, after seeing how the whole pack was already sleeping peacefully and making sure everyone was alright, he went over to his own family. Biter and Swipe were snuggling up to Ruby and Littlefoot was more than happy to join that peaceful and loving embrace.

He curled himself up behind his mate, snuggled up to her and closed his eyes.

 **Grrrwl...**

His eyes sprang open and he raised his head again at that slightly aggressive growl coming from Ruby.

"Is... something wrong?" He carefully asked her.

Ruby slowly raised her head, too, and flexed her neck around to look at him.

"You know exactly what's wrong." She spoke in a stern tone, but kept her voice low so as to not wake her children. "I still cannot believe you did that."

"Dear, please... You know I had to do it. It's just too dangerous. I can't risk that."

 **"Do you remember the day I went all alone to Hanging Rock to look after my parents when the Flying Rocks of Many Nights came?"** Ruby suddenly asked in leaf-eater.

 **"How could I forget?"** Littlefoot responded after a short, quiet laugh. **"You caused us quite some trouble back then. But you came back alive."**

 **"I came back alive because my friends came after me. _You_ came after me. Without you and your grandfather, I would have died in that fire, together with Chomper, Ducky and Spike. And then I would not have come back alive."**

Littlefoot already grimaced slightly, as he could guess far too well what his mate was getting at, but Ruby was still not finished.

 **"The Littlefoot I know would never leave a friend behind. No matter how dangerous the journey would be."**

 **"And the Ruby I know would understand why I had to do it."** Came his retort and he took a small pause before continuing. **"Did I ever tell you about my old home? About my home before the valley? Before Sharptooth came and killed my mother?"**

Ruby shook her head but her look communicated that she was highly interested to hear about it. So Littlefoot elaborated.

 **"Despite what my mother always told me, what my father always thought... what _I_ always thought and told everyone... I never was an only child."**

Ruby's eyes widened at that but she kept silent and continued to listen closely.

 **"The only thing I remember from back when I hatched is my mother but... As I grew older... I just knew there must have been other eggs. Many of my brothers and sisters must have died, either from egg-stealers or sharpteeth, but maybe one of them actually survived... Maybe one of them is still there. For all I know, I could have an adult brother or sister that looks exactly like my mother did or my father does, and he or she could have a son that looks exactly like I did as a longneck..."**

Littlefoot could see that his mate still didn't know what to say so he let out a deep sigh and switched over to sharptooth again.

"He is there... Specter is in my old home now, together with Sharptooth. And... he will never return, Ponder. Neither can we ever get him out of there. The only way out is through the Great Valley but we blocked the entrance long ago. Earthshakes destroyed all the other paths... Don't you think this pains me, too? It hurts more than you can imagine. I let him down and now I can't even help him anymore."

"But... can't we... at least let him know?" Ruby finally responded in a shaky voice. "We can't let him think that... we abandoned him!"

"Spotter tried to do that." Littlefoot answered in sadness. "He was attacked by another fastbiter... He almost died there, Ponder. I almost sent him to his death as well... I've had enough of this. All I want is that we can live together as a pack, without all those troubles... without all those losses..."

By now, Ruby was on the verge of tears as she remembered everything that's happened over the past years and how hopeless this new situation now was. She tried to look away but Littlefoot lowered his snout under hers and gently pulled her back to look at him as he gave her a loving nuzzle.

"He will survive, I know that. Maybe he will even form a pack of his own one day. Maybe, just maybe, on one day, he will find a way to return. But for now, all we can do is wait and live our lives."

Ruby returned the loving gesture and offered a firm nod in the end. Following that, they both moved closer to another, lowered their heads to the ground and closed their eyes, finally looking forward to a well-deserved rest in unison and tranquility.

* * *

 **And this is how I would like to conclude this chapter.  
**

 **It was quite an intense one to write, as it did hopefully become apparent, but I still had a lot of fun doing so.**

 **I hope you like it, and as always:**

 **Take care, and until next time.**


	16. Chapter 15: Reflections

**Chapter 15: Reflections**

 _ **"If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you'll see your rivals scrambling for second place." - Criss Jami  
**_

It was another dark day and he was all alone again.

The thick clouds, periodical rain and humid air marked the beginning of the coming cold time, and to Specter, this was as much liked as disliked. He liked it simply because he liked the calming sound of rain and darker atmosphere all around, but he also already disliked having his beautiful black and golden feathers dripping with water the whole time and the slippery ground below his unprotected feet.

 _At least it stopped before sunrise... I'm just glad we have this rock formation for ourselves..._

He wasn't even surprised to think of Chaser, Shade, Alba and himself as 'we' or 'us'. Even though the start here had been quite rough for him and his position still was very much at the bottom end, he figured that he really couldn't have been in a better place for now. The Tyrannosaurus and both of those raptors were indeed capable hunters and accomplished killers, and the fact alone that he was among them made him feel good. It wasn't the 'I'm happy' kind of good he had with Littlefoot's pack for several weeks but rather an 'I will survive with them' kind of good, but that didn't change much in terms of his feelings.

This was his new pack now, there was no other way to put it.

Knowing that this day would most likely be beyond challenging for him, he decided to finally get up and look for the others. So he slowly rolled over on his feet, shook the few bits of water off his feathers and went towards the usual meeting point.

But then, just as he was about to leave the clearing, he stopped in his tracks, turned around and walked to another point of interest.

He was standing in front of Chaser's massive footprint, deeply imprinted into the ground by his shattering stomp, a reminder of how unpleased the two-footer really had been and probably still was with him. The rainfall throughout the night has filled it up with water once more and turned it into a big, three-toed puddle. And although the liquid was a bit dirty and the sun's light was mostly blocked off by the clouds, Specter could perfectly see his own reflection, his own face in it.

This sight instantly brought him back almost four weeks to the fateful night when he had arrived in this time. Back to the night when he had first and at the same time last seen his new self in that pond in his original pack's territory. Back then, he saw the reflection of one of his favorite types of carnivorous dinosaurs. A Utahraptor with yellow eyes and dark feathers that resembled his old self only by mere fractions, but he had still found that the raptor resembled it in some way at least. Back then, he saw a human trapped in a dinosaur's body. Back then, he saw a way out.

Now, however, he saw something else. This reflection didn't belong to an alien Utahraptor anymore. What he saw now was himself. Himself and only himself. This reflection belonged to Specter. And nothing resembled even remotely what he once was, now that he thought about it again.

He was almost completely covered in black and golden feathers instead of having blond hair on his head. His eyes were yellow instead of green. The skin below his feathers was not 'skin-colored' anymore but dark grey. He had a snout filled with razor-sharp teeth and was pretty much only able to fully digest raw meat instead of being an omnivore. He had three clawed fingers on each hand and four clawed toes on each foot, the second toe being a huge sickle claw with only the third and fourth touching the ground for balance, instead of five normal ones on each. Size-wise he even outmatched Robert Wadlow, who stood 272 centimeters tall before he died at the young age of 22, the tallest human to ever walk the earth, by a tiny little bit. He had a tail now as well and, probably the most drastic change when it came to some of his 'drives' besides the usual ones, he was not a mammal anymore. Being honest with himself, he was already beginning to forget what he really looked like as a human, what it felt like being one.

In a flash, severe aggression was building up inside of him. Quaking with anger, so much that his feathers already started puffing out, he raised his right foot...

 **Splash!**

...and kicked down into the puddle, finally making this disgusting image of a black sharptooth disappear.

But he didn't react like this because he was angry that he was a fastbiter now. Quite the opposite. He had long since accepted that fate and actually liked being a Utahraptor very much. No, he was angry that he was such a pathetic weakling. He was angry that an elderly, one-eyed Tyrannosaurus, which already has been defeated once by five little leaf-eater children, could've killed him in less than half a minute, seemingly without even trying. He was angry that an albino raptor like Alba avoided him like the plague whenever she had the chance and would've willingly let him die without batting an eyelid, when it should've been the other way around by nature. And lastly, he was angry that a handicapped, normal-sized raptor like Shade was faster, more agile and a way better hunter and killer than him.

However, he was not angry _with_ any of those sharpteeth. Not even in the slightest. By now, he liked all three of them in their own ways and never went as far as questioning his ability to quickly assess new acquaintances. Chaser was brutal and heartless but had his principles, at least honored his oaths and it was quite obvious that he was pretty smart himself. Alba was understandably cautious with and mistrusting of him, as Specter could very well imagine how her life as an albino must've looked like so far. And Shade was just an overall nice, funny guy, plagued by the pain of his past, who was also, as he had quite clearly shown last night, in spite of his missing left arm probably one of the best and most cunning hunters around. No, Specter really couldn't be angry with them.

All this anger was purely directed at himself.

 _Fuck this! I will not keep on living like this! I will train, I will become faster, stronger, better than I ever thought I could! And then... together with them... I'm going to kill all those disgusting bastards who slaughtered those longnecks and whatever else they did... I gave him my word on that... I gave her my silent word on that... and I will always keep my promises! And after that... I'm finally... going... back h...  
_

"And here I thought _I_ was the ugly one of this pack."

Shade's joyful voice made Specter finally snap out of his rage and his scents of anger and aggression immediately dissolved. He took one last, extensive look at his own foot in Chaser's much bigger pug before turning around to his packmate with a neutral face.

"Ah, don't worry..." Shade continued with a smirk. "Everyone looks like shit in a pool of muddy water."

"Especially you, scarface." Specter responded with a grin of his own.

Shade let out a laugh at that.

"That's the fuzzball I want to see! C'mon now, you're expected."

Following that, still carrying a smile on his face, he gestured for Specter to follow after him and both raptors left the clearing.

* * *

 **The pack's territory:**

"I can't believe he's acting like that... Since when are we leaving our friends behind?" Cera muttered to herself while analyzing her markings, raising her voice afterwards. "So? How did it go? Did you talk some sense into him?"

"No, Stern Claw, he talked some into me." Ruby responded, busy with marking her own part of this area.

"Care to explain?" The yellow fastbiter inquired further after finishing with hers and walked up to her rose-colored companion.

Ruby let out a sigh before she gave her answer.

"He is in your old home lands now... far away. I think you know what that means..."

Cera tilted her head at that.

"Is he now? So what? I don't remember much of those ugly lands but what I do know is that they're not 'out of reach', as Seeker put it. The big earthshake destroyed a lot, true, but there must still be another way in. There is always a way. I know that, Seeker knows that and you know that, Ponder. Just what is he so afraid of? This is so unlike him. You're hiding something from me, aren't you?"

Ruby could only gulp and look at the ground, as she realized now that Cera was obviously way too experienced and headstrong to settle with such an answer. After all, the former threehorn was basically second-in-command in their pack. She always has been, even in her leaf-eater days.

So Ruby decided to let her in on some more details. Still, she also decided to keep Littlefoot's concerns about his potential surviving family members a secret. She could understand why his mother had never told him about her lost eggs, as this was one of the highest forms of disgrace a mother could bring upon herself. Actually, she was aware that she herself was never an only child. Fastrunners didn't lay only one egg, this was a simple fact, but she knew at least for certain that her only surviving siblings from a clutch of eggs that followed after her were Arial and Orchid. Concerning this topic, she didn't even want to think about having to fear to hunt someone of her very own family without even knowing about it.

"It's just that... he wants to avoid fighting Sharptooth and his allies. He wants to avoid losing even a single one of his loved ones again... Spotter almost got killed there by one of Sharptooth's fastbiters! And besides, I think he's right. I believe that Specter will return to us on one day, too."

"That I have no doubt of." Cera said dryly, and she could see that Ruby gave her a happy nod and already prepared herself to move back to the others, but she wanted to press her point a little further. "But I'm wondering if he will return as our friend... or as our enemy."

That made Ruby freeze in her tracks with wide eyes.

"What... do you mean? How can you say something like that?!" She asked in shock.

Cera shook her head in slight annoyance.

"Who are you two trying to fool, huh?" She spoke with her usual, stern voice by now. "Face it, Specter has learned a lot and he's learned it fast but he's still no more than a youngling compared to the likes of Sharptooth. Yes, I trust our big fuzzball, but if Sharptooth took him in just like that, he will have plans for him. Specter speaks leaf-eater, was apparently in the Great Valley for two days and knows about most of our past, and if Sharptooth somehow finds out, I'm sure he will do something with that knowledge. And most of all, he will do something _with_ or, which I think is what will happen, _to_ Specter. We ruined his life and brought down his father. The once terrifying name Sharptooth means nothing anymore. Other sharpteeth laugh at the two-footer who got 'killed' by five leaf-eater children. He's probably known under a different name now... What would you do in his position?"

"But... I... He would never... There is no way..."

Ruby didn't finish what she wanted to say. She certainly trusted her mate's decision and his logic behind that, but also trusted Cera's. And being completely honest with herself, Cera's opinion was by far the most horrifying one, but actually more reasonable for once.

"Anyway, I don't like it but I will follow his directive... because I fear Seeker was right with one thing." Cera said again, and after noticing Ruby's slightly more relieved expression, she let out a contemplative growl and concluded this discussion. "If we can avoid bloodshed, we should avoid it. So all we can do for now... is wait."

* * *

 **The Outlands:**

"I can't believe we're supposed to be doing this! He couldn't even land a single scratch on you! He's a weakling! And all this crazy stuff he talks about? He's hiding something, I know that! We should just get rid of him _now_ before..."

Chaser's deep, angry snarl made Alba go silent immediately, and the two-footer raised his voice in the same manner.

"Are you questioning my judgement?"

The female fastbiter frowned heavily and looked at the ground.

"No, sir."

"Good. I don't like this attitude, Alba. It doesn't suit you. I don't want to hear about any of this again, understood?"

"Yes, sir." Came her forced answer and she went off towards the oncoming packmembers in the distance.

Seeing how his sister was approaching both of them, Shade spoke up.

"Alright, we will leave you two big boys alone again. Try not to get yourself killed this time, ok?"

"I won't, don't worry." Specter responded in a dead-serious tone but gave him a smile regardless.

Shade nodded in satisfaction and gave Specter's flank an encouraging nudge before sprinting forwards, circling around and joining his sister in formation towards the other direction.

And as the dark blue and albino fastbiters charged past him, Specter's and Alba's respective right eyes met for just a split second. The look she gave him with her cerulean eye made him almost cringe, despite the microscopical time frame of contact. It was a look that pierced through his eye, into his head, down his throat and slashed his heart like a blade. Of course he wondered why she suddenly acted like this towards him when their first 'conversation' on his first night with this pack had been quite pleasant indeed, he found, but that was something he dismissed for now as he engaged in a sprint of his own towards his leader. When he stopped his movement right in front of the two-footer, he assumed a firm posture and waited. He wanted to do this the professional way from now on, and with someone like Chaser, he rather kept his big mouth shut until he was explicitly asked to speak up.

Chaser didn't say anything just yet, however. Instead, he moved forwards and began stalking around him like he would stalk around his prey while constantly scanning his whole body up and down with his left eye and just as constantly sniffing at him. Only when he arrived in front of Specter again after about a minute, he spoke up.

"Hmm... You intrigue me, you really do. On the outside, I see a fastbiter and I smell a fastbiter... but on the inside, I see something else. I see something I can't associate with anything I've ever met in my life. I don't see a fastbiter there. Actually, I don't even see a sharptooth. So, why don't you enlighten me and tell me what I'm really looking at?"

"You're looking at something that has been changed, something that shouldn't exist yet but still does." Specter gave his calm and relaxed answer. "You're looking at something that's not supposed to be fastbiter, sharptooth or leaf-eater. You're looking at something that's not even supposed to be a dinosaur."

By now, he was expecting Chaser to do something very unreasonable, which could've been anything from shattering laughter to shattering his hollow bones with a ferocious bite. The opportunities in this particular case were endless so he couldn't prepare himself for anything. How would an actual dinosaur like Chaser, who hatched as a Tyrannosaurus and has been raised in this time, react to such a preposterous statement? He would just have to wait and see, he figured.

"I see..." Chaser spoke up again after some time, in a seemingly highly interested tone by now. "And how exactly did that happen? How did you 'become' a fastbiter? How did you 'become' a dinosaur?"

"By a so called 'Stone of Cold Fire'. A blue glowing rock that fell down from the sky right next to my old home. I touched it, made a stupid wish upon it and then I was a fastbiter. I don't even remember what exactly I wished for, back then."

"Go on..." Chaser just stated in an expecting manner.

"I woke up right in a pack of fastbiters' territory, 25 days ago to be exact, far away from here. Seeker's pack. He found me. He took me in and taught me how to survive here, how to be a fastbiter. I consider myself a halfway decent hunter by now but truth be told, I just don't know how to properly fight. I never trained with them."

What Specter never noticed was that Chaser changed up his breathing rhythm and relaxed the muscles in his legs, neck and jaw after hearing this.

"So the stories are really true, huh?" The two-footer just said while looking into the distance shortly.

Specter couldn't help but tilt his head at that and lose most of his self-promised 'professionality'.

"The stories about the Stone? Well, yes, they are... I guess... but... You're really settling with that? You're believing me just like that? You're not going to kill me because I can't fight?"

"I'm believing you because not even the biggest wingbrain loon on the Red Coasts could've come up with something like this. Besides, unlike our first little talk, I can smell that you finally told me at least part of the whole truth. And I won't kill you because my own blood flows through you now. Unlike my father, I never betray my allies. However, you _will_ tell me the rest later. I'm still highly interested to hear what you could've possibly wanted in the Great Valley and who taught you how to speak their language."

 _But you would've killed me if one of those circumstances wouldn't have been there, right?_ Specter noted to himself, gulping in discomfort, but then he realized something far more pressing. _He wants to know about that, too?! Ugh! Of course he wants to! Fuck!_ _I have to somehow keep that a secret from him. I can't let him know about who Seeker really is, anyone of the pack really..._

Still, he bowed his head deeply and his firm voice from earlier returned to him.

"Thank you, sir. I will not disappoint you any longer. I would be honored to learn from you, and I will keep my promise. I will help you wipe out those 'pests'."

Although Chaser still noticed a bit of fear in that statement, it was his turn to tilt his head and eye and massive fastbiter in surprise.

"You've changed. Your scents differ not by much but your words do. What happened since yesterday?"

"I saw my reflection." Came Specter's spontaneous answer. "I saw... myself. I saw that I can't go on living like this. I saw that I'll die if I would."

And just like on the last day, he suddenly noticed the slightest note of sadness from Chaser again. The scent was even more prominent than before and this time, he could actually see the deep emotion in the two-footer's cold eye. If he didn't know any better, he would've guessed that the menacing Tyrannosaurus started crying, came the next moment.

Of course he was right and this was not what happened but Chaser's reaction surprised him regardless. The two-footer nodded, turned away from him and reached out with his tiny right arm, gesturing for Specter to follow him. And he did so without hesitation.

* * *

The two sharpteeth arrived rather quickly at the same vantage point from last day and once more, both of them sat down and gazed into the distance for a while, observing some lonely leaf-eaters, small sharpteeth or the occasional herd of longnecks, swimmers or threehorns passing by on the vast lands below.

"Is there a reason you've brought me here again?" Specter carefully asked when he noticed that Chaser wouldn't speak up himself and was deeply lost in his thoughts.

"There is. I think it's finally time to let you know why I, or rather _we_ , want those sharpteeth dead I've told you about." The two-footer responded after a while. "And also, I think this story will answer another few of your questions."

Specter kept his quiet and continued to listen to him with utmost care. He already sensed another brutal and heartbreaking story coming, the tone in Chaser's otherwise mostly emotionless voice gave that away.

But little did he know about the true downfall of the most fearsome sharptooth of all, and Chaser was determined to enlighten him yet again.

"Many years ago, my father and I forged a plan. For so long, we had been killers without a cause, without a goal. Sharptooth and Red Claw, those names struck fear into everyone's heart but it was not enough for us. It was never enough, it never replaced what we had lost. None of us would ever be happy again without a home, without a place to stay. But as we moved through the lands, killed pack after pack, herd after herd, everyone who stood in our way, made our names known even to the flyers at the distant Red Coasts and beyond, one name grew louder and louder. There was one name that defied us, grew bigger than us. One name that stood for everything we stood against..."

Specter shifted uneasily and started putting the pieces of this puzzle together in his mind.

 _'One name that stood for everything we stood against'... don't tell me... he's talking about...  
_

"The Great Valley." Chaser named the missing piece out loud, though it was more like spitting it out. "A safe haven for all these fucking sap-suckers like those who killed our family, where every disgusting leaf-eater could evade its fate. One day crushing our eggs, killing our young, crippling our mates, mothers and fathers, the next living in 'peace', running away from the consequences. Word got around rather quickly and not before long, food became sparse. Every single damn herd moved towards that place to avoid being hunted. We had to start feeding on our own kind, on _your_ kind after that, but as you might know, there are just less sharpteeth than leaf-eaters. It's always been this way."

"Yeah, I... am aware of that." Specter responded in forced calmness. He couldn't even begin to describe his own emotions right now. Once more, he just couldn't decide on which side he rather would've stood on, as both sides were right in their own ways. On the one hand, it was a way to find lasting peace for all those herbivores and he had been happy to see them living in tranquility in such vast numbers while he was staying in the valley himself, but on the other hand, and he had to agree with Chaser there, it was a way that went directly against nature and endangered the food chain in this whole area. All the skeletons of dead carnivores around the valley he had seen were a testament to that. For the first time, he was glad those troubles and both of those sides didn't concern him for over 20 years.

Now, however, they did.

"Ultimately, even the sharpteeth and halfteeth grew sparse and we often hungered for days until we could catch ourselves something." Chaser continued. "And that was when we had an idea. That was when we had finally found a new goal..."

"You wanted to reach, wipe out or occupy the Great Valley... prevent anyone from ever setting foot in it..." Specter finished Chaser's line of thinking, and Chaser agreed with a grunt.

"With this in mind, we moved on, split up, each of us looking for that cursed place. And on that one fateful day, through those five little sap-suckers, I found it. I hadn't eaten anything in almost six long days back then. I was weak, not even close to my full strength, but I pushed it aside, determined to let them lead me to their valley."

"You... could've killed them? But you let them alive?" Specter asked in a mix of surprise and shock.

"At first. Do you honestly think those little pests could've outran me?" Chaser responded almost in a mocking fashion. "I just chased them. Even after that little longneck shit took my right eye, I kept my discipline. And then, finally, I was able to smell that place out. Instead of going back to the adult I killed, however, I still went after the children in my hunger and anger."

Chaser looked up at the sky now to underline his next words and as if on cue, it started raining. No gesture could've underlined this story further than the cold water from the dark heaven, a crying sky.

"It was my downfall..."

* * *

 **Many years ago:**

"I will kill you all, you pathetic little sap-suckers!"

 **Thud!**

Chaser jumped on this little overhang where his three snacks were at right now. A longneck, a swimmer and a spiketail. The stinging pain in his right eye was almost unbearable but it was one of those feelings he easily pushed aside in his fury. He would celebrate reaching his goal by killing all four of these annoying little pests in front of and above him.

"Petrie!"

The little swimmer he had just thrown off his snout seemed to communicate with that pesky little flyer on his massive head, which was trying in vain to distract him somehow.

 _That's your friend, huh?! Fine, I'll kill you first then, bigface!_

 **Chomp!**

His bite missed the swimmer and he couldn't reach the spiketail or the longneck, a big rock between his legs and the children saw to that. Chaser was growing increasingly angrier. He was on the verge of losing his sanity. Never before in his whole life did he have such difficulties killing some leaf-eaters. Especially not children. He lashed out with his forelimbs but his arms were too short to reach them and he was too weak by now to just push the rock away. His hunger was too big and this long chase across the lands until here has taken its toll on his giant body, despite him being in his best years right now.

Once more, the flyer tried to distract him, this time by pulling the eyelids of his healthy eye, but Chaser dismissed that, still lashing out with his claws in raw anger.

"I'm coming!"

"Cera! You're back!"

For just a moment, he could see that yellow threehorn from earlier charging at him. This rotten little horn-face that dared to mock him after he was pushed down that cliff by the adult longneck.

 **Crash!**

With an unexpected force for such a small creature, the threehorn slammed into the rock between his legs, finally moving the last thing which blocked him off from his deserved snacks. The problem was, which he didn't notice in his rage, the rock moved in the wrong way and he started losing his balance.

 _Die you little shits! DIE!_

 **Chomp!**

Again, he bit down on the children but again, he missed. For the last time. Only now, he realized that the rocks below his feet started crumbling under his weight and broke away from the overhang. And then, he finally lost grip with his left foot, fell over and down into the abyss, together with the big rock and that flyer right on top his snout.

 **Roar!**

One last defying, angry and shattering roar he let out and without even thinking about it, he opened his jaws again.

 **Chomp!**

He didn't make a mistake this time. His teeth locked the flyer's wings in and pulled it down with him. This one final act of revenge he would wreak. At least that stupid, incompetent little flyer he would take from those sap-suckers which dared to injure him so severely, which dared to defy him, which dared to mock him, which dared to cross his plans.

 _"Chaser! Let him go!"_

Moments before the impact on the water surface, the world seemed to freeze as this voice echoed inside his head. He had just enough time to do as it commanded.

 **Splash! Thud!  
**

Everything went dark around him. The stinging pain in his right eye and brutal ache in his stomach faded away together with his consciousness as he sank deeper and deeper into the watering hole.

* * *

 _No pain, no hunger, no goal._

 _Where was he? Probably not among the living anymore. Yet, even here, not even knowing where he was, in this land of darkness, the horrible feeling of immense shame overcame him. The mighty Sharptooth, untouchable, undefiable, unbeatable, defeated by leaf-eater children. This emotion seemed to consume him, tear him apart, rip him to pieces from the inside. Over and over again. His pride and lust for revenge taken, the sole things that had kept him alive for so long, there was nothing inside of him anymore.  
_

 _And then suddenly, all this torment stopped. It was as if it never existed.  
_

 _"You did the right thing._ _ _I'm proud of you, Chaser._ "_

 _The instant this voice, this soft, distant, tender growling, echoed around once more, all those bad feelings turned good. He knew whom that voice belonged to. Never had he forgotten the love and kindness it carried, despite it belonging to a ferocious hunter and despite not having heard it for so many years.  
_

 _"Mother...? Is... that... really you?" He asked into the distance, deep insecureness and fear in his own voice. Right now, all the things which defined him were gone. Everything he's worked for in his life, his reputation and his alias, his brother's legacy, all of his kills, didn't matter anymore here. Here, he was the same little biter he had been before he left his parents, barely above the size of a fastbiter back then._

 _But he refused to accept that. He was Sharptooth, the strongest and most fearsome of them all, even surpassing his father. This just couldn't be._

 _"No! It's not! Go away! It's not you! You're dead! You're gone!" He roared out._

 _"Chaser..." The distant voice spoke again. "I will never return but still, I have always been with you. I will never be gone. But mindless killing will not bring me back to life. This is not what I wanted. I never wanted you to do this. Neither did I want Ardor to take this path. Please, Chaser, listen to your heart. Let it guide you. Don't be afraid to do so. It's not too late, at least for you."_

 _"Leave me alone!" He screamed in rage and disbelief. "Ardor is dead!_ _ _Chaser is dead!_ I am Sharptooth! I am the son of Red Claw! I know no fear! I have no heart!"_

 _"You're lying." The voice responded in kindness. "You always knew your place, you simply lost course. But eventually, you will find your path again. I believe in you, my son._ _ _Only you can set him free now and prevent at least one life of hatred and murder. For another, it's already too late._ "_

 _Before he could even think about asking what the voice meant by that, the darkness all around disappeared within moments, bright light taking its place. And together with it and the distant voice for one last time, came the pain of the real world._

 _"Don't breathe, Chaser."_

* * *

His left eye sprang open again. Out of instinct, dismissing what the voice had just told him, he tried to gasp for air but had just enough time to feel the liquid pain in his nostrils and thus stopped his desire to breathe. Instead, he swung his massive tail around and kicked out with his powerful legs, pushing himself off the ground towards the light above him.

But with every hasty blink of his working eye, he was losing strength. His lungs were burning like fire and it would be only moments until his body forced him to breathe in the water and painfully suffocate on it, drowning like a pathetic idiot.

 _No... I... won't... give up!_

Putting all his remaining strength to use, he propelled himself upwards.

 **Splash!**

And finally, he broke through the water surface, taking in multiple gasping breaths of fresh air. Ever so slowly, he swam over to the ground and with the last drop of power he still had in himself, he hooked his foot claws into earth, swung his tail out of the water and rolled over on solid ground again.

Chaser's whole body felt like it was falling apart. He tried to stand up but his legs gave in the moment he attempted to do so. His sight was still blurred and the pain in his stomach seemed to grow with every breath. And then his heartbeat finally decelerated and he lost his consciousness again.

* * *

When he regained it, the Bright Circle was barely about to disappear behind the mountains all around but to him, it seemed like multiple seasons had passed.

Every single part of his body still ached but he managed to rise back on his feet this time. Carefully, he tried to scan the environment with his remaining eye and noticed immediately that he would never be able to hunt like he had been before. He had no idea why, but he suddenly had problems measuring distances for example. The leaf-eater children had seen to that, especially that little longneck with his dirty use of the environment. And while they were probably in safety by now in their cursed valley, he was doomed. All his rage and anger came back in full force.

He took a deep breath, wanted to let out a shattering roar, wanted to tear the skies apart with his clamorous voice, but then a scent reached his nose. Before he could even process this, however, another voice spoke up from behind him. And just like the last one, this was not a new voice.

"So he was right... You're really here, Chaser."

Chaser froze in his stance, unable to even blink. He had never forgotten a single scent in his life and he knew perfectly well whom this scent here belonged to, just like he knew whom the voice belonged to, albeit the pitch has drastically changed.

 _No... No, this is impossible!_

"It's been quite a long time, hasn't it, brother?"

Only now, Chaser slowly turned around. And when he finally saw who the other sharptooth was, he almost broke down again.

It was another two-footer, colored in dark green, not yet fully grown but still easily rivaling his own size. The sharptooth really looked exactly like he did, as if he was looking at his own reflection right now.

"Rex! You?! How... How are you still alive?!" He stammered.

The other two-footer let out an amused laugh at that.

"Well, I learned from the best."

Having said that, his brother slowly started moving towards him.

Chaser just stared at his sibling in utter horror, still nowhere near able to comprehend how he could possibly be alive. For now, he just resorted to analyzing him. The Rex he was looking at now was immensely big for a two-footer of his age and just as bulky. It was quite obvious how he had been able to survive without his family that long, but it still didn't explain how he survived the cowardly attack of those leaf-eaters in the first place. After all, it was common knowledge that clubtails had bad eyesight but good noses, good enough to sniff out other sharpteeth in their immediate vicinity.

"But... I... We... thought you were dead... How...?"

Rex stopped about a threehorn-length away from him now and gave him a wide smile.

"Me? Dying that easily? No, brother, not like that."

Chaser continued to be completely overwhelmed by this sudden change of events. This two-footer in front of him was his little brother, whom he had thought dead for some many painful years. For now, the only thing he wanted to do was welcome him once more.

So he moved forwards and extended his forelimbs for a brotherly embrace, and he could see Rex preparing himself for the same gesture.

"Rex... I... I don't know..."

 **Slam!**

Instead of embracing necks with his brother, however, Rex used his massive head to strike at Chaser's neck from his blind side, violently throwing the bigger and heavier two-footer on his flank.

"You haven't changed at all, brother." Rex spoke while eyeing his injured brother in disgust. "You still refuse to see the obvious, deluded by your endless thirst for power. I was there, right there among them, and what did you do? You didn't come looking for me... No... No, _you_ saw an opportunity."

"What... are you talking about?!" Chaser screamed back in shock at his brother from his prone position. "I wanted to avenge you! I didn't want your name go to waste!"

Rex laughed mockingly and placed his right foot on Chaser's flank.

"He told me everything about you, Chaser. You stole _my_ name from me, lived _my_ life together with our pathetic father, while leaving me to rot with our sister, our mother... and those disgusting sap-suckers!"

 **Slice!**

 **Roar!**

Using the three sharp claws on his foot he ripped a massive gash into his brother's side, which was accompanied by Chaser's painful scream, wiping his bloody weapons on the ground afterwards.

Because he was lying on his left side and his right eye wasn't working anymore, Chaser couldn't even see his brother's dirty smile and murderous look in his own eyes

"Why?! Why... are you doing this?!" Chaser asked in his horror. "What happened?! You're Rex! We're brothers! We're a family!"

Rex just answered with another mocking laugh at first.

"No, Chaser, I am Sharptooth. Sharptooth has no brother. Sharptooth has no family. There can only be one to carry this name, to become the strongest of them all. And you, _brother_ , are simply in my way now."

 **Chomp!**

He bit down on Chaser's neck with all his force, pulling him through the dirt and throwing him head first into some rocks.

 **Crash!**

"Just look at you." Rex added insult to injury with an almost indifferent tone in his voice. "Pathetic, weak, feeble. And you dare to call yourself Sharptooth? You're not worthy of that name."

Finally, Chaser snapped out of his horror and groggily rose back on his feet. The wounds on his flank and neck were steadily leaking blood, only adding to his overall pain. But just like earlier, he was able to dismiss that. This was a fight. His own little brother wanted to kill him, for whatever reason he actually wanted to do that. What kind of sharptooth would he be, were this actually to happen, were he actually letting a smaller sharptooth overpower him? He had to admit, however, Rex was fast. Way too fast for a normal two-footer. He would have to give it his all to take him down, he figured.

And yet, he couldn't strike back. The moment his left eye locked on to Rex, he had this image in his mind again. He saw himself. He saw a two-footer that killed anyone in its way for mindless revenge and power, to replace something it was never able to replace in the first place. He saw a sharptooth that wandered astray from the correct path.

And there was another thing. There was one thing he desperately wanted to know.

"Who is 'he'?! Who trained you?! Who told you all those lies?! Who... made you like this?!"

Rex just tilted his head left and right, letting the bones in his neck emit loud cracking sounds.

"Lies? Tzz... Even here you try to save yourself..."

"Answer me!" Chaser roared back.

"Why would I? His name will simply follow you to your death, anyway."

At this point, Chaser couldn't hold back any longer. This sharptooth right in front of him looked and smelled like his little brother, but it simply wasn't. Not anymore.

 **Roar!**

Following his shattering roar, he began his charge while trying to keep Rex in his vastly decreased field of vision. He only noticed his reckless thinking when he felt an outburst of pain in his right forelimb.

Once more, Rex had gone for his blind side, simply ducked away from his charge and bit down on his right arm, trying to rip it off now.

 **Slice!**

But came the next moment, Chaser counterattacked. He used his left arm and slashed Rex's right eye out. His brother immediately let go of his forelimb and jumped multiple steps back, screaming in pain himself now.

That was Chaser's opportunity. Once more, he charged forwards.

 **Slam! Crash!**

He lowered his massive skull and headbutted Rex in his chest, easily making him fall over and landing close to the watering hole. He stood right in front of his prone little brother now, and he would've easily been able to finish him off. He had to do it. But he hesitated again. He just couldn't do it.

And then suddenly, Rex started laughing. It was the same kind of laugh this elder threehorn had given him all those years back. This insane, mocking laughter of victory.

"Go on, Chaser! Kill me! Kill your own brother! You already did it once! Do it! Kill me!" Rex roared under his mocking, insane laugh.

Chaser still hesitated. His whole body was shaking and he couldn't mount a reaction.

"I know you couldn't, you pathetic weakling! Just like the runt that our father is won't be able to do it! Red Claw, what a pathetic name! Do you want to know how I survived? Do you want to know how I evaded the good noses of those clubtails?"

He could see Rex already preparing himself to stand up again. He knew wasn't allowed to let that happen but he was still frozen in his tracks right now.

"Oh, our sister actually proved to be useful for once. She has always been weak, she has always been a burden to us! She couldn't even land a single scratch on those sap-suckers! But I guess I should still be thankful for that. Her blood kept me alive. At least I was able to leave my mark on that stupid clubtail idiot before he smacked me away!"

By now, Rex was standing again and wearing a dirty smile on his bleeding face.

And it was at that moment when Chaser finally snapped.

 **Roar!**

With all his ferocity, he bit down on his neck, slamming him on the ground once more, almost knocking him out.

"You're right..." Chaser said in an ice cold voice after taking a shuddering breath. "I can't kill my own brother. But you're not Rex. You... are _Sharptooth_. And Sharptooth..."

 **Chomp!**

He bit down on his skull now, pulled him over to the watering hole and pushed his head inside. Rex kicked out with every limb of his body but Chaser was too strong and determined for him. The bubbles emerging on the water surface and gurgling sounds coming from his brother went on and on until they finally stopped after what seemed to be a year and he went limp.

Chaser let go of his target now and looked up at the sky.

"... died here today."

He eyed his brother's corpse, his fresh kill, after that. His hunger was so immense that he wanted to rip him apart and eat him, but he had a far better idea.

 _This is all your fault, father! YOU did this! I dare you to come and look at this! Take a good look at Sharptooth and see what our path did to our family! Maybe then, you will finally understand! Maybe then, you will finally see what I saw!  
_

 **Roar!**

One last angry, shattering roar of victory he let out, which turned into a mournful, sorrowful howl at the end. And after another few deep breaths, he pushed his brother's body into the water and watched it slowly disappear in the dark abyss so that it would surface again later as the bloated and disfigured body of Sharptooth, the most fearsome of all.

For now, Chaser had another thing on his mind.

* * *

The trip back took him ages and the Night Circle was already high up in the sky. But despite his pain and hunger, he was determined to reach his target. He was determined to reach the place where he should've just stopped, where he had already taken down his deserved meal but chased after some children regardless, only granting him his demise.

Finally, he arrived at the corpse of the massive female longneck from earlier. It was still quite fresh, only one big chunk of flesh has been ripped out of its back, and that was his very own doing. Not wasting any more time, he dug into his kill and ripped it apart, sating his hunger and slowly regaining his strength. The longneck's carcass steadily disappeared and it soon turned into a shredded pile of bones and innards, only the neck, head, tail and upper part of the body still intact.

When he finished eating, he shortly bowed his head before the corpse. A sign he had never done in his life but he found that this leaf-eater was the first one to truly deserve it, as she would keep him alive now and enable him to start over.

Using his newly acquired strength, he proceeded to push her massive body down into the chasm where she had pushed him down to protect the children.

He didn't know if he did this as a final act of grudge and revenge or to prevent other sharpteeth from gorging themselves on his own kill, tainting this 'gift', but what he did know was that he was alive and determined to find the sharptooth who corrupted his brother.

 _It will never stop... It will always be the same! You don't deserve revenge, Sharptooth... You never deserved it! But you, brother, you deserve it... I will find the one who did this to you... and I will kill him!_

* * *

 **The present:**

For some reason, Specter wanted to jump up and burst into rage at what Chaser's little 'idea', letting Red Claw see 'his' corpse, had actually caused in the end but he knew that would've been outright stupid and wrong in the end. The two-footer probably knew himself he had the blood of hundreds of innocent dinosaurs on his claws. How was even someone like Chaser supposed to know this would happen, Specter asked himself.

While the awful silence embraced both of them, he couldn't help but eye the three-clawed scar on Chaser's right flank and finally speak up.

"So... that was not the longclaw? That was... your own brother?"

"No." Chaser responded in coldness. "That sharptooth wasn't my brother anymore."

"But that scar looks so fresh... and why did you want the longclaw dead, then?" Specter asked in confusion.

"It never fully healed, that's all. Why I wanted that asshole dead? Because he belonged to the same ones that did this to my brother, killed the longneck herd and many other things."

He gasped in shock and looked at the ground. He really didn't want to bother his leader with any more of those meaningless questions and by now, it slowly started making sense to him.

 _That guy was a leaf-eater but also able to speak sharptooth... Someone like that would be extremely useful... Nobody would think about him working together with hunters... He could lead food to the ones he's serving, just like I've heard Ponder's family doing it for a while but even more subtle, but also... Oh, fuck..._

"Why are you telling me all this?" He finally asked, dismissing this new find and forgetting all the shame he had felt after watching the longclaw die. "I will help you regardless."

"I know." Chaser stated. "But I want you to know. Who else would care about my story anymore?"

Specter nodded at this and looked into the distance again. He could partly understand how horrible it must've been to lose one's identity as he had lost his own once. Chaser, however, had lost his twice. And the fact that the two-footer kept on going, kept on living his life regardless and even took in those two fastbiters who probably had their own brutal backstory, actually took in some inexperienced fuzzball like himself, earned him deep respect from Specter.

"We will begin your training today." Chaser then spoke up again. "And when you're ready, those bastards will learn to fear our names."

And even though Specter was deeply concerned about his own life, he gave Chaser an affirmative grunt. He found that the two-footer really had an ability to deliver his points and rally one's determination. Even more so since he himself was more than just determined to finally become strong and capable.

But for now, the Tyrannosaurus and the big Utahraptor kept gazing into the peaceful distance for a while longer.

* * *

 **So, this is how I would like to conclude Chapter 15.**

 **I hope this places one more missing piece into the puzzle and answers how Sharptooth survived and Red Claw still found 'his' corpse.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, please tell me what you think about this, and as always:**

 **Take care, and have a nice day!**


	17. Chapter 16: Recognition

**Chapter 16: Recognition  
**

 _ **"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius." - Arthur Conan Doyle  
**_

"And you're really not interested to hear about that?"

"Why would I?" Chaser gave his indifferent answer. "Those 'humans' seem to me like useless, weak little critters. I'm surprised they're actually supposed to be hunters."

Specter shook his head but smiled at that regardless. Without knowing about modern technology, any kind of actual technology really, Chaser was more than correct with his assumption, obviously. And just as obviously, Specter wanted to avoid going over all of this in too much detail once again. So he was more than fine with a dinosaur insulting the species that should have followed after them and taken over the world to change it forever. After all, it were dinosaurs who ruled this planet first, and that for way over 100 million years.

In light of that, he kept the little lecture for the two-footer hidden inside his mind.

 _Never underestimate the small, Chaser... You of all dinosaurs should know that..._

"All I care about is that you're a big fastbiter now, someone who knows how to kill and follows simple orders. The rest we will change anyway."

"Works for me." Specter concluded this topic, definitely wanting to switch over to a far more pressing one. "So, uhm... If you don't mind me asking... Did you... ever get to know 'his' name?"

"No. And at this point, I don't care about that anymore." Chaser said, took a short pause and stretched out his left forelimb before continuing. "But Shade does. You should ask him."

Specter's eyes widened and he nodded at this in big discomfort as the innuendo of that gesture was as clear as it could get, but he was still not finished with his queries.

"I will... But I'm assuming 'he' doesn't work alone, so... What kinds of sharpteeth are they?"

"Ugly pieces of shit they are." Chaser answered in a strange mix of jest and dead serious disgust. "Apparently, some of them look like as if a two-footer has mated with a threehorn."

Specter couldn't help but smirk. Chaser's sense of humor sure was cold and blunt, but for some reason it was exactly what could cheer him up even while talking about such a grave topic. Even more so since jokes really didn't seem to fit the mostly emotionless, scarred Tyrannosaurus he was walking right next to.

"So they have 'horned sharpteeth' with them? Basically smaller two-footers, more or less my size, with horns on their heads?" He finally asked somewhat in jest himself, still carrying a smile, but his thoughts were a bit troubled nonetheless.

 _I guess the most dangerous ones of them are some Ceratosaurs then, the eponymic ones of those... Just under two and a half meters tall and around two tons heavy, huge teeth, yet small arms... Hmm... Funny to think that I'm actually quite a bit bigger but much lighter than those. My current weight should be around a ton, given my size but hollow bones... Well, I'm a Utahraptor of course, bulky and muscular, but still build for speed and agility and all. Still... it's strange... If I'm not entirely mistaken, Ceratos shouldn't have feathers... at least not as many as I do... and neither do any Utahraptors besides me and the few of Seeker's pack have them... which still baffles me... But... that must've been exactly what Arga was trying to tell me with 'some of them' looking 'a lot like me'...  
_

What he didn't notice while dwelling in his thoughts was that Chaser began to contort his face at this confident response.

"I thought you were new around here?" The two-footer asked after a while. "Those sharpteeth came from far away, from where the Bright Circle rises every morning, so how would you know what exactly they are and how they look like?"

"It's not like you've made this particularly hard for me with your 'description'." Came Specter's simple answer. "Besides, I know a lot about all different kinds of dinosaurs, wherever they're from. I know how most of them look, move, fight, mate... You name it."

 _Or... at least I think so..._ He added as an afterthought. Chaser's strength and speed for one was something he had vastly underestimated, even with his quite extensive knowledge of Tyrannosaurs, and the fact that Littlefoot and his pack knew about spears, poison and body armor was something he had never imagined either. Then there was Ruby's family, Oviraptors, which should've been living in Mongolia instead of what was obviously, given the distinctive plants, many rock formations and the simple fact that the extinction asteroid should've arrived somewhere around this continent a few years ago, the late cretaceous America. And the exact same applied to some other species here.

Being honest with himself, he probably had to come to terms with his knowledge meaning less by the second.

"Hmm... Maybe you're worth my time after all." The two-footer thought aloud, making Specter once again shiver slightly in this aura of coldness which basically surrounded him.

After some more time in silence, both sharpteeth stopped their movement upon reaching their home. The sight of Shade and Alba greeted them. However, it was definitely not the sight Specter had expected to see.

"Should I... be worried?" He just asked ahead, seeing how the two siblings were circling each other with extended claws.

Chaser kept his silence for now and it would soon become quite clear to Specter why the two fastbiters were acting like that. Even though they were wearing serious faces and displaying actual combat postures, both of them were swinging their tails left and right almost in unison.

 _Ah, of course! They're play fighting... But why were Seeker and the others so eager to be wearing their body armors whenever they were doing it? These two here seem to be totally fine without them..._

"You never had siblings, huh?" The two-footer made himself known again, with a sorrowful undertone in his voice.

"No, I was born alone... It's quite normal for what I once was. But to be honest, I'm glad about that. I like to be by myself. I'm just not made for... you know... _this_." Specter answered and pointed at the siblings, who were growling and jumping at each other by now, masterfully evading each other's dangerous claws and teeth.

Chaser flashed the slightest of smiles.

"Neither was I. The time comes when you'll regret thinking about it this way, though. Nobody wants to die alone."

This turned Specter's emotions upside down. And that was no big surprise, really. There were still a lot of 'unknowns' with Chaser's goal, wiping out the sharpteeth they had briefly talked about, and it was quite likely that someone of this pack would die. The most obvious victim right now, in his current state at least, Specter figured, was himself.

However, he was just too used to dismissing these possibilities every time and in theory, he wasn't afraid of death, so his answer came out more naive than it probably should have.

"Maybe, but I don't plan on dying in the first place. I've survived enough shit already, and it's only been a month since I'm a fastbiter."

For the first time in years, Chaser let out an honestly amused chuckle. Following that, he bowed down his massive head close to Specter's.

"You know nothing, fuzzball."

To underline his statement, he turned around and began walking away. And while doing so, he gave Specter's left flank a light whip with his tail, on the same spot where he had hit him a little harder yesterday, causing the huge fastbiter to gasp in pain and almost fall over to his other side. Chaser felt like his point had come across now, so he proceeded to pick up the pace to find himself some food, may it be some usable carrion from the slaughtered longnecks or something fresh.

What Specter didn't see anymore was that he was still smiling faintly. It was an honest, happy smile.

 _Hm... You remind me of a certain little biter who left his parents, thinking he was ready for this world... Let's hope it doesn't take you six warm times to figure out you're not._

"Ow! Goddamn asshole!" Specter muttered to himself while rubbing over his struck side. But he was quick to stop his angry murmurings as he could see both Shade and Alba looking at him by now. So he straightened out his body and walked over to the siblings.

"Had another 'disagreement'?" Shade asked with a wide smirk.

"Sort of..." Specter answered, his face still contorted in ache. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"Well, Chaser ordered us to get you up to our standards. Though I don't really understand why, to be honest. I'm still having problems believing that he beat you up so easily."

Alba was about to let her brother know in all detail again what she had seen on the last day but Specter spoke up first.

"It's true. I... had no chance against him... I never learned how to properly fight other sharpteeth... I never had the chance to do what you two were doing just now... I mean, I've seen..."

"You don't have any siblings?" Shade interrupted in surprise, and even Alba seemed to be taken aback by that revelation.

"No, I don't. Never had. And neither did I have fastbiter parents who could've trained me." Specter responded, already in the process of formulating the sentence in his mind that would tell the two fastbiters what he once was and why it wasn't a big surprise he didn't grow up like a normal sharptooth.

However, before he could speak up again, Shade continued.

"So that's why..." The blue fastbiter said, moved forward and placed his right hand on Specter's flank. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Specter wanted to change exactly that and let him know that he didn't deserve this sign of comfort, tell him what he still really was on the inside, but Alba's cold, mistrusting glare prompted him to keep his mouth shut. Since he would probably have to stay for much longer with them than he had originally expected, he absolutely didn't want to make his already, for some odd reason, bad relationship with the big female even worse by telling any of the siblings about his past life. It would make fitting in a lot harder for him, which was another thing he wanted to avoid.

 _Wouldn't want a two-meter female Utahraptor getting angry with me just yet... I'm already the black sheep among them, way too literally... Besides... Chaser is gonna tell them anyway, sooner or later..._

So he just accepted Shade's friendly, caring gesture.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it. But you don't have to worry about me. That part of my life is long since over already."

"Good, glad to hear you're alright with it." Shade responded. "Ok, let's get started then! Wanna help, sis?"

Alba's answer to that happy question was that she wordlessly turned around and sprinted off.

 _Waste of breath... He's going to die anyway..._

Rather than the wind, it was the coldness of her thoughts she left in the wake of her extremely fast sprint. To Specter, it felt like the ground below her snow-white form would freeze over any second now, just like the underbrush in which she disappeared the next moment.

Shade sighed loudly at his sister's reaction and gave Specter an apologetic look.

"Don't take it..."

"She's... fast." Specter stated in awe before Shade could finish his sentence.

"The fastest there is." Shade said with a smile again, which began to disappear to turn into a frown when he continued, however. "It's how she survived."

Specter nodded at this, as it really wasn't much of a surprise to hear that.

"I can imagine... And no, I won't take it amiss. I'm just not that kind of guy. I'm sure we will get along one day."

This made Shade cheer up again.

"You really are different... Anyway, let's get to it. This will take a while, I fear."

Having said that, he proceeded to do exactly what Chaser had done to Specter earlier, stalking around the huge fastbiter and scanning his whole body up and down, minus the sniffing this time. Unlike the two-footer though, Shade even lowered himself slightly downwards and went through Specter's legs from behind, poking him with his claws in the underside of his belly and chest a few times, finally emerging from below him in front of his face again.

Specter had held his breath while Shade did this and only now audibly exhaled. He trusted the blue fastbiter to not do anything harmful to him but that didn't change the fact that another Utahraptor had gotten very close to some of his 'precious' body parts with its claws and poked him in extremely vulnerable areas.

"Little test of trust, sorry about that." Shade spoke up again when the two fastbiters were standing face-to-face.

 _Figured as much..._ Specter noted to himself in slight relief.

Shade continued to muster him for a few more seconds before letting out another sigh.

"This will be a tough one... Training with my big little sister is hard enough, but you?"

Specter understood Shade's concerns, which were obviously related to his size and weight, but he was still a bit confused. This brought him back to his time with Littlefoot's pack as the situation for him right now was pretty much the exact same as it was back then. So his next question was almost inevitable.

"Well... Why can't Chaser do it then? A two-footer like him should be able to handle me."

"He already did, yesterday and just before he left now." Came Shade's answer and he pointed at Specter's left flank. "Let me guess. That's exactly where he hit and smacked you away, right?"

"Yeah... he... How do you know that?" Specter asked in great surprise.

 _It was even the exact same move of that fucking asshole Thrasher... always my left side... always a swing from a tail to my left side...  
_

"His ways of teaching are crude but precise." Shade said and pointed at his own right eye. "You simply rely too much on your right eye. Rookie mistake... though you're the first healthy sharptooth I've seen having this problem... But don't worry, it was pretty much the same with our big two-footer. Just that we almost killed him for it, back then."

 _So that's how both of you got your scars, huh?_ Specter quickly noted to himself, highly intrigued to hear about that particular encounter, hopefully at a later point on this day. And he was also very surprised to hear about his own little problem. _Hmm... I knew my right eye was my primary eye for shooting and other stuff but... It really affects me this much now? Just because my eyes are not pointing straight forwards anymore?  
_

"Anyway..." Shade continued, definitely not wanting to tell that particular story just yet. "It's easy to fix that. At least you still have both your eyes... Go ahead, close your right one."

Specter did as Shade commanded and closed his right eye. He didn't really expect too much from it though, as he had often done this as a human, too, for example when accurately shooting a rifle at a funfair, and never had too many problems seeing through one eye in the first place.

However, he was utterly horrified experiencing it now as a raptor.

His perception was so much worse. Almost his entire view to the right was blocked off by his snout and he couldn't even tell if he was still able to, in theory, reach Shade right in front of him with his claws, should he decide to attack him, because his whole depth-perception was pretty much gone. This was the first time in his life as a fastbiter that he only saw through one eye and he deduced that he would honestly lose his will to live, were he ever to lose one of his yellow oculi. It certainly seemed like the limitations of his smaller brain came into effect, at least in this case.

Now he could understand how Chaser's life with only one eye must've looked like so far. Especially considering that a Tyrannosaurus' snout was much bigger than his own and that this kind of sharptooth _had_ to rely almost purely on its bite to hunt and kill.

 _Goddammit, Seeker... You should've just made sure he was dead, back then... No wonder he still wants your blood... If I was him, I would travel across this continent to kill the one who did this to me...  
_

But he also figured that this might've been the only reason why Chaser's bites missed the former leaf-eater gang of five every time after he had enough of 'just chasing them', back when they 'killed' him. So in the end, he was once again a little bit torn which side he rather wanted to support. Probably Littlefoot's side though, making himself aware again that it was the brown fastbiter who has kept him alive when he arrived here. Although, admittedly, Chaser had saved his feathers, too.

Like always, he rather not chose a side at all.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Shade asked with a grin. "But that is something we will attend to later. For now, eyes on me. Both of them."

Specter opened his right eye again and felt more than relieved now that he could see everything around and in front of him mostly three-dimensionally, like he was accustomed to.

"So, did you observe how I took down the longneck?"

"Was hard not to." Specter responded. "I've never seen something like this. It's almost like you knew every move she was about to make."

"That's because I did." Shade stated, and he didn't even feel especially prideful when he noticed Specter's awed look. To him, there was nothing unique about his fighting style, however effective it might've been. "If you learn how to see through your opponents, nobody's gonna have a chance against you, no matter how big they are. And since you're already big yourself, this should work perfectly fine for you."

"Alright, sounds more than good to me! With what do we begin?"

"Some basic moves, I'd say the most important ones first. Just dodge." He said, raised his claws and moved into a combat posture. "Claws up!"

Specter did so, too. He extended his forelimbs and raised his immensely long, feathered tail into the air. But even though he really tried to be humble about his size, he couldn't help but literally belittle the way smaller fastbiter in front of him. Shade was a normal-sized Utahraptor, a highly deadly 185cm tall, 7m long and a bit less than 400kg heavy killing machine, and yet he was only about as long as Specter's own tail by itself and small enough to actually fit beneath him while he was standing upright. The fact that the blue fastbiter was lacking a left arm didn't really add to an impressive image, from the outside at least. It was this instinctual voice from deep within which pressed him to just ignore that ankle-biter as he would surely prove to be no match for such a big sharptooth like himself.

But as three claws came flying at his snout from slightly below his right side, this voice went silent rather quickly.

Specter jerked his head out of the way and jumped backwards, a gap which Shade instantly closed again. The next strike came from his left, but this time he would not make the same, foolish mistake. He tilted his head sideways and could see Shade's right-hand claws flying past his face, with the next strike coming from the right once more in form of a backhand swing. The pattern of Shade's attacks became quite obvious to him at this point, the blue fastbiter was just testing him and thus plainly swiping left and right with his only arm, probably not even with all his speed, so maybe he would be able to use that for his advantage just yet, like Shade wanted to teach him anyway.

He lifted his head upwards and raised his own right forelimb.

 **Clack!**

Both fastbiters' right-hand claws interlocked, freezing them into their stances.

"Nicely done! You're a fast learner at least." Shade spoke up with smirk. "Quick reactions, decently evaded and you're already watching out for your left."

Specter was wearing a slight, satisfied smile of his own, but Shade was not finished.

"However..."

Only now, he noticed that Shade was presenting a very strange posture. And also, he felt a bit of pressure on his chest, which was soon followed by something pointed tapping against the base of his throat three times.

"You should really pay more attention to what's going on down below you. Another mistake you can't afford to make. Bigger isn't better."

Following Specter's uncomfortable gulp, Shade retracted his sickle claw and placed his left foot on the ground again. He had raised his leg so high up to reach his target that his muscles ached slightly, but he still was more than pleased with this little sparring match.

"Looks good so far. Keep this up and we'll have a show tonight! Alright, round two."

Although this short training fight by itself was as exhausting for his body as it was for his mind, Specter rather enjoyed himself. He had never imagined that he would take this much pleasure in fighting but he figured that it was just another one of those vital parts of his new life. One of those parts he just had to enjoy doing, just like hunting.

So he displayed his combat posture once more and prepared himself. With a determined smile on his face.

"Claws up!"

* * *

 **Several hours later:**

 _Left, down, up, strike. Right, down, up, strike... Left!_

 **Clack!**

Specter's and Shade's claws interlocked once more.

This time, however, it was a bit different. Before starting this round of sparring, and after the many breaks in between to rest a bit or drink something, Shade had demanded of Specter to give it his all, to really go for it and try killing him. Specter was very well aware that he wouldn't be able to do it anyway, so he proceeded like it was asked of him. Giving it his all, trying to kill his instructor.

Shade used his left foot again to kick at him but Specter countered immediately by kicking out with his right.

 **Thud!**

The clawed toes on their feet interlocked, each of them balancing on their respective other now. But not having another limb to spare meant for Shade that he had no way of attacking or defending himself anymore. Specter was still unsure about this but in the few seconds all of these moves had happened, there was little room for him to concentrate on something else.

He aimed for Shade's neck, rocked his head forwards, closed his eyes and...

 **Chomp!**

...bit down on air and almost fell over to the front. He slowly opened his eyes again. The blue fastbiter had disappeared.

 _Where the f...?_

Something pointed poked him in his belly again.

"You're dead." Came the cheeky fastbiter's voice from right below him.

"Again?" Specter asked in annoyance, dropping his fighting stance.

"For the twentieth time." Shade stated plainly, flashing a smile, and laid down on his haunches beneath the big fuzzball. "And if I were you, I'd stop using my teeth to kill... It just opens you up for an attack. Bigger is not better, keep that in mind from now on. Though I must admit, it's quite nice down here. At least I will never get drenched during these seasons with someone like you among us."

Specter looked up at the dark, dripping sky of this approaching evening. A dirty grin formed on his face.

"Bigger is not better, huh?"

Having said that, he simply lowered himself to the ground, too.

"Hey... What are you...?!"

And almost buried Shade under his massive body, pushing the blue fastbiter into the wet ground. The only signs of life he still emitted were some unintelligible growls and his tail with which he lashed out to every side, somehow trying to free himself from this fuzzy doom. To no avail, of course. The black fastbiter on top of him was just way too heavy.

When Specter felt like his point had come across, he stood up again and eyed the dirty form of Shade.

"You're dead." He imitated Shade's usual, mocking tone. "So, I guess it's twenty to one now."

Shade glared at him for a while with his face covered in mud, at least until Specter offered him his right hand with a friendly smile. He accepted that gesture, let the big fastbiter pull him up, and shook the dirt off his body.

"Sly bastard... I'll get you for this."

"Looking forward to it." Specter concluded today's training with him and both fastbiters gave each other a final smirk.

"Are you finished messing around?"

They turned around to Alba, who just emerged from the underbrush of the nearby forest.

"We are." Her brother answered. "And I could sure use a meal now. What about you, fuzzball?"

"You're really asking me that?" Specter questioned rhetorically. "I could eat a whole longneck!"

That was an exaggeration, of course, but it was also supposed to hint at something. Even though he lusted for some fresh meat and would've liked to experience the thrill of a proper hunt again, he wanted to avoid killing when possible. And since there were a few tons of halfway edible carrion nearby, namely the dead Argentinosaurus herd where Chaser probably went off to earlier, Specter figured it would be a crime to let that big, unnecessary sacrifice go to waste and rot away completely, even though scavenging was not exactly his liking. Surely, the other two fastbiters would be indifferent about this so called 'sacrifice' but at least they would understand that it also wasn't connected with the usual dangers of a hunt for live prey.

"Oh, I can imagine... However, I think I have a better idea." Shade said and smiled when he saw Specter's asking look. "You'll see. But first, let's find out if that sniffer of yours still works, shall we?"

"It would be my pleasure."

"Good. Let's head out then!"

Having concluded this discussion, the three fastbiters sprinted off into the night.

* * *

"Come on, slow claw! Get a move on!"

 _50kph, holding steady... God damn these guys are fast..._

Specter was panting heavily, trying to keep up with the two siblings, but neither his hunger nor Shade's mockery could make him run faster. While he was used to the blue fastbiter's speed, he estimated that especially Ruby actually sprinted somewhat faster than Shade, he certainly wasn't to Alba's. Unlike his last pack, these fastbiters did not adjust their speed to his.

 _He's almost reaching 70, I think... But she... That must be easily 80kph... Insane..._

And although he had learned by now that calling another fastbiter 'slow claw' was a grave insult, which was actually quite on point with him and Taunt's name for his insulting signature gesture, he was smiling widely.

 _We have our personal Blue... Now we only need a guy on a motorbike between us... and some genetically produced monster to hunt...  
_

For the following few minutes, he just enjoyed this race across the lands, watching the siblings dash past each other to fall back again and change formation. And then finally, the other two were slowing down their pace and all three of them came to a halt.

"Alright then, are you picking up a scent?" Shade asked.

Specter sniffed the air profoundly in every direction.

"Yeah... There are some small critters around... three swimmers quite a bit away, moving slightly towards us... and a lone... spiketail, I believe."

"Impressive sniffer indeed you have there. I can't smell those swimmers."

"Glad to be of help." Specter said with a smile. "So, the swimmers?"

"No." Came Shade's immediate answer, staring into a very particular direction.

Specter tilted his head, honestly taken aback by that rejection. Why wouldn't Shade want to go after some swimmers, which were quite easy to kill and providing plenty of tasty food, he asked himself.

 _Unless... Oh, please no! What the fuck is wrong with you, Shade?!_

As if Shade had listened to Specter's thoughts, he spoke up again. With his distinctive, wide smirk on his scarred face.

"Yes... the spiketail."

"But why?" Specter sputtered in his confusion. "Spiketails are dangerous... and they taste like shit."

Shade laughed heartily while Alba only rolled her gleaming blue eyes in annoyance.

"Did you think your training was over already? We have just started, fuzzball."

Specter let out a loud sigh but didn't object the blue fastbiter, offered a nod and prepared himself for another sprint. And came the next moment, the trio disappeared from the scene with the speed of the wind. At least two of them.

* * *

Shade gestured for everyone to stop at the sight of their target. The male, adult spiketail was around three longneck-lengths away, eating some select leaves from the many plants around. The last midnight snack of its life.

Specter relaxed a little bit after finally seeing what exactly they, or rather he, would be up against.

 _That's not a Stego... That's a Wuerhosaurus. 'The last of the Stegosaurs' in terms of evolution... How fitting, for this night at least..._

The spiketail stood just under three meters tall, not counting the small, streamlined plates on its back, and seven meters long, giving it a weight of around four tons. This meant that it was a lot smaller than an original Stegosaurus but it had the distinctive, highly dangerous four spikes on its tail nonetheless.

"How do we proceed?" Specter asked.

"Ever hunted a spiketail?" Came Shade's instant counterquestion.

"Not an adult... and not this kind of spiketail. So no, never..."

"Perfect!" The blue fastbiter exclaimed as loud as he could afford to. "I want you to just watch us for now. I want you to observe how he fights and tries to counter us."

"Understood." Specter responded in dead seriousness.

Shade gave him another nod, and he and his sister split up to attack from two sides. When they reached their positions, Alba, even in this dark night being by far the most easily visible one of all three fastbiters, made the first move from behind the prey.

 **Screech!**

The spiketail almost jumped to her predatory shriek and spun halfway around, raising its lethal tail into the air and turning slightly sideways.

 **Shluck!**

But that proved to be a fatal mistake as Shade silently jumped at it from out of the shadows of the other side, ripped through its flesh with his sickle claws, cutting a few big wounds into its skin before letting go and extending the distance, circling around to join his sister's side. Without even looking at the other predator, the leaf-eater lashed out with its tail but missed him, and now it had two fastbiters ahead to fight.

Specter tried to analyze this as best as he could from his position in the dark, making his mostly black-feathered body almost invisible, only his shimmering yellow eyes doing their work right now.

 _Ok... So... He's still giving Alba his right side... Shade messed him up from the left and then he's missed him... But that doesn't have to mean anything... Way too simple... He'll only use his tail to attack... and a tail has no 'strong side'..._ He thought to himself and decided to just wait for now. Seeing how Shade completely dismissed him, he figured that the time of his participation had yet to come anyway.

Shade and Alba both charged at the spiketail side by side, merely a meter between them. The leaf-eater reacted accordingly.

 **Slam!**

It spun its rear around and slammed its spiked tail down with all its force, leaving a wide crack in the ground, forcing the fastbiters to evade and break up their formation. But it didn't stop there. Instead, it ripped through the ground with its weapons, lashing out at Shade once more. The blue fastbiter, however, was pretty unimpressed, simply jumped over the menacing tail which came from behind him, latched on to his target's left side and cut yet another big wound into it, joining up with his sister afterwards.

Specter could see and almost feel that the spiketail had lost its temper by now. It just violently lashed out to every side with its tail, trying to kill or at least injure one of the pesky fastbiters who were running circles around it.

 _I would've gone for his legs... or for his neck and for a quick kill... Why are you...? Hold on... Are you... just making him angry?!_

Shade's satisfied grin, followed by a quick gesture for Specter to finally join the fight, too, somewhat confirmed his assumption. He obeyed and moved out of the bushes towards the prey with extended claws.

The spiketail was still swinging its tail around in sheer anger, throwing one insult after another at the sharpteeth, but when it finally saw the third fastbiter of this hunting pack, the leaf-eater dropped its fighting stance for a second, completely dismissing the two other dangerous fastbiters, and seemingly almost fainted, shaking its head in disbelief.

Specter rolled his eyes at that reaction. On the one hand, he felt good that he was feared by his prey but on the other, he was heavily annoyed that he was constantly viewed as something so 'special', such a massive oddity, by leaf-eaters and sharpteeth alike. For the most part, he had been able to dismiss the painful outcries and all the insults of that spiketail, but then suddenly, its next words took him aback.

"No... Not another one of _them_!"

That sentence felt like it had been slapped in his face, and Specter visibly frowned while still closing the distance to his target. The way this spiketail spoke the word 'them' made something turn in his stomach, as it reminded him so much of how Arga reacted to him, of how even Shade and Alba first reacted to him.

 _Why are they all so shocked to see me? Sure, I'm way too big for a fastbiter and unlike almost all the others, I'm feathered... but I'm still a Utahraptor... I don't look anything like a Ceratosaur... Even the most retarded Stego, Wuerho or whatever else should be able to realize that...  
_

For some reason, he wanted to just quit his part in this hunt right there and ask the spiketail what it had meant by that.

However, he decided against it. And that had nothing to do with his self-imposed careful approach from now on. Not only would he have to explain and translate everything to the pack, but he deduced that he could also just ask his fellow hunters in the first place. Chaser's gesture with his left forelimb and mentioning Shade afterwards could not have meant anything else but that the blue fastbiter had a history with 'them'. So why ask a leaf-eater, who had probably seen 'them' once and never again, if even that, when he could ask a fastbiter who had lost a limb to 'them'? Besides, Specter desperately wanted to avoid the same thing happening to him like it had with the friendly, female Argentinosaurus, putting restraints on himself by talking to his prey when all he had to do was kill it. Chaser's reaction to that led him to believe that the casual sharptooth certainly didn't like hesitations on a hunt. And being honest with himself, neither did Specter.

So he shook his head once, dismissing those foolish plans, and presented an even more aggressive stance, pretending like he had not understood a single word.

Shade and Alba were finished arousing the spiketail's anger by now, and both of them situated themselves behind Specter to let the big sharptooth do the rest for them. The leaf-eater certainly understood this change of events and raised its tail again, showing its right flank to Specter while bleeding heavily from the left.

 _That's what he wanted me to observe? That this Wuerho's left side is his weakness? Nah, I'm not buying it... There must be something I've missed... A tiny little detail..._

Specter came to a stop around ten meters, his own length, away from his prey. He quickly sniffed at it a few times, trying to find something in its scents.

 _Nothing there, either... Completely healthy, as far as I can smell... What did he see that I still don't?  
_

Since he found absolutely nothing for his own advantage, Specter felt like he was forced to test his prey himself. He slowly moved sideways, trying to get vision on the spiketail's left flank, but the leaf-eater turned its body simultaneously to face him with its right.

 _Whatever Shade's seen, it's on the other side... Normally, I'd say it's the wounds he wants to hide now, but he did the same thing with Alba already... Something makes him shift all his weight to his right... and I will find out what that something is!_

He made up his mind. A dirty little trick he would use, but he reminded himself that the dirtiest and simplest tricks sometimes worked best.

Specter averted his eyes from the spiketail, looking at a big, imaginary creature suddenly standing right behind it. And he forced a toothy grin on his face.

 **"Hey there, Sharptooth! Want to join the fight?"**

Without even questioning that a sharptooth just spoke leaf-eater, the spiketail's eyes widened to the maximum and it instantly swung its tail at the imaginary two-footer. The fear of that name was still so deeply imprinted into some herbivores' minds that even mentioning it clouded their senses, it seemed. Especially when an oversized fastbiter vocalized it in their language, with such confidence in its voice.

But what the spiketail didn't realize in its newfound horror was that it had finally given Specter its heavily injured left flank. And the injury he was interested in was not one of the many which Shade had inflicted. What he really was interested in was more of a 'condition' by now.

 _A clubfoot... His left hind leg has a clubfoot, is slightly disfigured and has some healed scars on it..._

Having finally found the weakness he could capitalize on, Specter's face turned emotionless. Simply because he was about to take another life in a brutal fashion, which he just could not take any joy in. And he would be doing it very, very soon.

His timeframe here consisted of maybe five seconds before the prey would consciously realize it had been fooled, and two of those seconds had already passed while Specter had been searching for his point of attack. He couldn't even afford to waste a single moment.

With all his power, he charged forwards, preparing his tremendously powerful legs. And then he jumped, keeping his tail bent downwards so that his golden feathers cut through the mud.

 **Crack!**

Specter dropkicked the leaf-eater's fragile hind leg with both of his feet, applying a sudden pressure of multiple tons from one side, breaking it apart at the midpoint. And before the spiketail even had the chance to let out another scream, Specter had landed on the ground again, reacted just fast enough to not lose his balance and jumped out of the way.

 **Thud!**

With a horribly disfigured leg which was trapped beneath its own body now, the leaf-eater lay in the mud, twitching in anguish and pain. The dirt below its left flank got into the wounds there, too, only amplifying the pain even more. Not for much longer, however.

 **Shluck!**

Specter made sure he buried the huge sickle claw on his right foot so deep in his target's neck that it would definitely cut through the aorta or windpipe, granting the spiketail a relatively quick death after so much suffering. When he couldn't feel any kind of movement below his foot anymore, he ripped his claw out, swiftly lowered himself to the ground and closed his fresh kill's eyes.

Only then, having concluded the most important ritual to him by now, he turned around to the other two fastbiters.

"Well? Is my training finished for today?"

Shade's and Alba's surprised and impressed looks communicated approval, and the happy expression from earlier started to return on Specter's face, although it remained faint.

"Good. Let's eat then."

He went over to the spiketail's bulky abdominal area and carefully ripped out a small chunk of meat. He anticipated that it would taste mediocre at best, which would've still been alright, considering his current hunger, but it was quite good. Actually, it was one of the tastiest kinds of meat he had ever tried.

"I usually hate spiketail meat, too. But this kind here? Delicious!" Shade spoke up in his typical manner from behind Specter, eagerly awaiting his own turn.

This put an honest smile back on Specter's face.

 _Evolution, you fucked up. You were supposed to make them taste worse, not better._

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks." He returned gratefully and made an inviting gesture with both his hands. "What are you waiting for? You two basically did all the hard work for me."

He didn't have to say that twice. Without hesitation, the siblings hungrily dug into their dinner together with him.

* * *

Specter watched how Shade and Alba already curled themselves up beneath the sheltering rock at their home, but he sat down on the overhang first, gazing at the dark sky, and enjoyed the slight rain cooling him down and washing the stains of blood off his muzzle.

He kind of wanted his solitude right now, but he didn't really mind when another fastbiter sat down next to him. What he didn't see was that a pair of blue eyes was watching both of them.

"Where did you learn that? What you did to take him down." Shade asked curiously.

"Seen it somewhere, decided it might prove to be useful in that situation." Specter answered plainly, as this topic crossed another one he didn't want to mention.

"No, not the jump." Shade stated firmly. "Who taught you their language?"

Specter began to quake with anger on his inside, asking himself why he had once again openly revealed that he could speak leaf-eater. Now probably even Alba knew about that, although he was surprised that she didn't comment on anything. In any event, he definitely wanted to keep Littlefoot and everyone of the pack out of this, as it surely would lead to nothing but trouble when Shade or Alba found out that it was another feathered fastbiter who has taught him the language of their 'food'.

By now, he had already figured out how to avoid giving truthful answers without lying at the same time. Humans were born liars, after all, so he decided to use that for his advantage once more.

"I lived in the Great Valley for some time. You learn an awful lot about them when you wake up between sap-suckers every day."

This made Shade's jaw drop. Not only because Specter smiled at his own words but simply because he could smell that this was the truth.

"You... lived in the Great Valley?"

"Yeah, not for very long though. I had some business to take care of there. It had something to do with my old pack and everyone's wellbeing... Let's just leave it at that."

Shade still stared at him with a dumbstruck face but regained his composure rather quickly and offered a satisfied nod.

"Sure... You really have to tell me about that place sometime..." The blue fastbiter said into the distance, looking back at Specter afterwards. "Anyway, I'm very pleased with your progress. Let's get some rest now, shall we? Tomorrow will be a tough day. For both of us."

Specter had already guessed something like that so he grunted in affirmation and stood up together with Shade, walked over to the sheltering rock and curled himself up under it right next to Alba, though he took special care in not touching her white form with any part of his body. He didn't really know how a female from this time would react to such an 'intrusion' but he was rather overly careful than ending up with a three-clawed scar on his face. Or a hole in his throat, for that matter.

The soothing sound of the rain combined with his overall exhaustion made him fall asleep almost instantly. And in his sleep, even with his overly sensitive ears, he never noticed that one of the other two fastbiters silently snuck away a bit later.

* * *

The fastbiter averted its eyes from the almost two-day-old marking on the ground and stared at the oncoming sharpteeth with a visible frown on its face. One of them was this disgusting, huge sharptooth with dark fuzz covering some parts of its muscular body, and it was flanked by a big fastbiter, which was completely covered in feathers. The duo came to a halt face-to-face with the unfeathered fastbiter, but the largest predator of them took another step forwards before finally speaking up.

"Report."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Came the instant, angered exclamation. "Why did you kill that longneck herd? This is not what we have agreed on!"

"My, my! That's some attitude you dare showing. Anyway, I see our message has been received. Is someone now feeling bad for those sap-suckers?" The huge, male sharptooth spoke mockingly, towering above the way smaller fastbiter and letting the sparse light of the Night Circle illuminate the two blood-red horns on his narrow head, throwing shadows over his orange eyes. "We also didn't agree on you taking in another fastbiter. I thought our actual agreement was quite clear."

"We had no choice!" The fastbiter protested. "Chaser ordered us to take him in... And what about you using sharptooth flyers all of a sudden?"

"We don't have flyers with us, scales for brains. Besides, do you honestly think I give a shit about what that one-eyed fool decides? _My_ orders are what matters to you, understand? Don't make the same mistake like that stupid longclaw and try to betray me. But I hear you've already taken care of our 'asset', at least _that_ you managed to do." The horned sharptooth stated in coldness. "Now, tell me about this new fastbiter."

"Of course... His name is Specter. He just showed up here two days ago, but I don't know where he came from. None of us knows anything about him, Chaser is far too protective of him for some reason and they are always having their talks in private. He is definitely of my kind though, that I know, even though he has this fuzz all over his body and is only about an arm's length smaller than you."

The big sharptooth tilted his head in surprise.

"Such a big fastbiter with feathers, of your kind? Is that so?"

"Yes, it is."

The so far silent, male fastbiter now moved forwards, too, presenting the grey and white feathers all over his slender body, making him a bit shorter but still taller than the bald fastbiter which was now in front of him. The most distinctive part of his body was his head, however, which was almost completely white, only the areas immediately around his nostrils and eyes being dark grey.

"I'm believing it, sir. This kind of fastbiter stinks like none other."

The smaller fastbiter growled angrily at this insult but went silent the moment the horned sharptooth did the same sound in a far deeper pitch.

"I didn't ask for your opinion, Skull."

The fastbiter named Skull kept unfazed but retreated unanimously behind his leader again, still glaring in disgust at his unfeathered counterpart.

"Go on..." The leader stated, turning his attention back to what stood in front of him.

"Chaser wants us to train him for now. But he..."

"Is that 'Specter' any threat?" Came the interruption.

"No... Not yet. He can't fight to save his own life, but he is smart and learns very fast, it seems. We hunted a spiketail today... I thought it would easily kill him but he finished it off like I've never seen anyone doing it before. He's weird, he doesn't think like a normal hunter, he doesn't know the fastbiter vow... I'm not sure if he's even a normal sharptooth in that sense... He said he lived in the Great Valley for a few days and all... I really don't know what to do with him."

"You will proceed as we've planned, simple as that. Keep him alive. Maybe he can still be of use to us later."

"Understood." The fastbiter concluded and was just about to sprint off towards the other direction when the horned sharptooth raised his voice once more.

"And do not disappoint me again. I don't think I need to remind you of how merciful I am, keeping someone like you around. No one else would take you in, keep that in mind."

The fastbiter presented one last heavy frown and sprinted off, leaving the two feathered sharpteeth standing on their own. When both of them had lost sight of their informant, the big sharptooth spoke up once more.

"The Great Valley, huh? Interesting... Tell the boss about this. I'll let him decide what to do with that information."

"Yes, sir!" Skull spoke up and exploded into a sprint of his own, leaving his leader alone for now.

The huge, horned predator stood there for a while longer, gazing into the vast distance with a satisfied look on his face.

* * *

 **And thus I would like to conclude this chapter.**

 **It took me quite a while to write, way too long for my liking, but I hope the outcome is acceptable. Please do let me know what you think about it, and thank you in advance.**

 **Having said that, I wish all of you a nice Christmas, or simply a peaceful next week, and a happy new year in advance!**

 **Take care, and until 2016!**


	18. Chapter 17: Echoes

**Chapter 17: Echoes**

 ** _"I'm just tired of everything…even of the echoes. There is nothing in my life but echoes…echoes of lost hopes and dreams and joys. They're beautiful and mocking." - L.M. Montgomery  
_**

The sun of this early midday broke through the thick, dark clouds. The warmth of its bright rays shined down on Specter's black feathers, lifting his mood and spirits along with it. Once more, Shade wouldn't tell him precisely what he has planned for him but he didn't really mind that anymore. Maybe he could actually look forward to a pleasant surprise for once, he figured.

The beginning of this day had been as normal as it could get for his new self of a raptor. He had woken up quite a bit after the others, was pretty grumpy for a while but then returned to his usual behavior after drinking some fresh, cool water, washing himself and taking care of all his other bodily needs. Especially the last part, and that was where the normality disappeared, had taken him quite some time, and that had probably only one particular reason.

 _I take it back, evolution... Didn't know something this succulent could have such an effect on my stomach... Of course my fast metabolism just had to carry over, too..._ _ _Never imagined Chinese food could mess me up even 65 million years back..._ Ugh... Note to myself, no more Wuerho meat for now...  
_

He quickly shook his head at those slightly disgusting memories from earlier and accelerated his pace to reach Shade's flank again. The two of them were in a relaxed jog, making them fast but still slow enough to hold a normal conversation. The topics thus far had been rather shallow, albeit highly important, Shade mostly relayed some theoretical combat-related knowledge to him.

But there were some things which were rather off-topic Specter was very much interested in.

And he could already somewhat anticipate what kind of an answer he would get, because all those things were connected to one particular specimen. Specter talked to Shade alone last night, when part of what he wanted to know about happened, and there had been only one more raptor nearby. The second trouble concerned Alba's behavior itself, but as she was the only female in this pack, Specter tried to understand why she was in such a cold mood. Nevertheless, he desperately wanted her to acknowledge him. Somehow.

How else would he feel completely comfortable with his new pack? How else would he be able to hunt and fight along her side?

She wasn't here now, however. It was definitely not his style bypassing problems by talking to an intermediary, Shade in this case, but he was aware why Alba couldn't come with them, simply because the sun could be very harmful to an albino. Right now, he was glad about that because she has made him feel very uncomfortable as of lately, he still couldn't comprehend why she was acting like that, although he honestly felt for her genetic disorder, liked her cold and quiet demeanor in some twisted way and found her very interesting to look at. The way she moved, looked, her bright blue eyes, how she behaved. Everything. Just as much as all the other magnificent creatures of this time, but even more so, since she was something so unique.

Obviously, he was not interested _in_ her, though. Alba was a hatched and raised dinosaur, after all, and Specter was a born and raised human. He just wasn't attracted to such a being, however special it might've been. Any thoughts beyond friendship, he didn't even remotely consider, as he didn't with all the other female raptors. Thing was, looking at it from Alba's point of view, she probably didn't want to come along plainly because of him, for whatever reason, no matter how dark the sky, no matter how hard Specter tried to show his friendly and caring personality, so his empathy towards her dissolved rather swiftly. For now, at least.

After some time in silence, he felt the urge to just ask ahead about what's on his mind.

"So, when you asked me where I learned leaf-eater... Why did you keep your voice low? Why did you want to avoid asking for it directly in the first place?"

Shade's answer came immediately, he wasn't even looking at Specter while giving it.

"Because she was listening. She was observing you, us, for the whole day. It's her way of getting to know new sharpteeth, and I just didn't want her to accuse you of... something."

"What... do you mean by that?" Came Specter's instant and confused question, to which both fastbiters simultaneously reduced their pace to walking speed.

Hearing about this really surprised him, not even because Alba has apparently watched him all the time but because he had not felt watched at all on the last day. While that certainly wasn't an 'ability' of his, it was just one of those feelings he could rely on in most situations, which was simply because he still thought he could perfectly assess dinosaurs' personalities like he had been able to with humans'. Being able to actually smell feelings and emotions now only added to that. But it seemed like this was another way of thinking he would have to get rid of.

And also, far more importantly, what would Alba possibly accuse him of, only because he was able to speak two languages?

"Specter..." Shade started, let out an emotionally exhausted sigh and looked Specter straight in his eyes. He knew exactly what the black fastbiter wanted to be informed of. Of course it was mostly about Alba. It was hard dismissing his own sister's behavior, after all, especially when he experienced almost the same as she had. So he began with the most obvious problem. "Fastbiters who look just like you killed our family. Everyone we knew. Our parents, our brother and sister, and my pack. Everyone. The only friends we ever had are dead."

Specter felt like as if somebody had kicked him in the groin. The fact alone that Shade had addressed him with his proper name instead of the usual 'fuzzball', meant that he had indeed hit a very soft spot here. Let alone the little detail that feathered Utahraptors had apparently murdered all of the siblings' loved ones.

The simple problem here was, there was only one single pack of feathered Utahraptors Specter knew of. All the others were unfeathered, this was what he has observed and heard from everyone of his last pack thus far. He needed a few moments to sort out his mind before he could even think about responding to that revelation. He was definitely glad that Shade told him why Alba reacted so hostile towards him all of a sudden, maybe even a dinosaur was able to have PTSD so at least he could partly understand now, but he had never expected that it would turn out to be this emotional. For both of them.

However, Shade was not finished just yet.

"I know what you're thinking... and no, it's not like that. Yes, those fastbiters have all this funny fuzz just like you have, but they are way smaller than you, about my sister's size. Maybe they look a lot like you but they're not of your kind, of our kind. They're faster, kind of skinny, and they look and smell... different... if only slightly."

 _So... they're not Utahraptors? But if they almost look the same and almost smell the same... and have feathers... what are they?_ Specter noted to himself. For a moment he had thought that Littlefoot and his pack killed the siblings' relatives at some point. He couldn't even begin to describe how relieved he felt now that he knew otherwise. Still, the truth made him only more worried. _Maybe... those are the ones who attacked the Argentinosaurs... But Arga told me they were no fastbiters... And how did we not find a single corpse? Impossible that not one of them died while attacking a herd of such gigantic Sauropods..._

"And concerning leaf-eater..." Shade continued. "Some... or rather _someone_ of them... can speak it, too."

Now it was Specter's turn to drop his jaw, if only for a second. This whole situation was getting worse with every breath.

"What makes you... so sure about that?" He asked in deep insecureness. For all he knew, the overwhelming majority of sharpteeth assumed that their prey couldn't even talk in the first place, and it was the exact same with leaf-eaters thinking about predators. Then again, with bilingual herbivores like that longclaw having worked for 'them', seemingly everything was possible.

"Simple..." Shade answered drily. "I assume Chaser has already told you about how he lost part of his family and what happened to his brother afterwards?"

"Yeah... he has." Specter affirmed, frowning at the memories of that dark, heartbreaking tale, but still unable to understand how this was related to his question.

"Good. So you should know that clubtails and threehorns don't work together by themselves. They never have and never will. No exceptions. It would actually be very smart doing it, given how dangerous they are together, but those sap-suckers are way too prideful and stupid. They would rather leave their own children to die than helping each other, just like all the other leaf-eaters. Why do you think most of us sharpteeth think they're unable to talk? I used to think so for far too long as well... until I met Chaser. So by now, it's pretty obvious to me that someone must have coordinated those clubtails and threehorns. Someone must have known that he had come back to his family. Someone must have pressed those sap-suckers to join up. And that someone wanted part of Chaser's family dead, everyone but his little brother, but didn't want to have that blood on his claws..."

The Great Valley has proven Specter otherwise when it came to communication between different species of leaf-eaters, of course. As did Littlefoot's stories, but they had also proven him that outside of that sacred valley, those circumstances _have_ been there in this world forever, across every species. Cera still was sort of a living example for that, and so was also and especially her father. And since Chaser's story took place so many years in the past, way before the oldest adult fastbiter Specter knew by now had hatched, way before the Great Valley has been discovered, it was very likely that Shade was on point with his statement.

"What I'm trying to say is... I don't want my sister to know about such things. Not after everything that's happened to her... See, there are some things which are very complicated. Things that are dangerous, even. Some things that are best not to be mentioned... And what I know, especially what you know and finally confirmed to me, is simply part of those things. Please try to understand..." Shade finished his speech.

"Don't worry, I do. I understand." Specter responded firmly. And how could he not? Those were, for the most part, his exact same words coming from Shade there, the exact same succession of grunts, snarls and growls, prior to when he told everyone of his last pack about his past life. It almost frightened him how similar his own way of thinking about such things was to that of a 'casual' fastbiter, but he deduced that this might've been the reason he felt so comfortable around this cheeky blue raptor.

Shade offered a sure nod, concluding this important discussion, and the two fastbiters accelerated the pace again.

* * *

 _We must've easily moved 15 kilometers eastwards by now... Where are you taking me?_

"Could you tell me now why we're traveling so far, already?" Specter asked.

"Well, you're doing fine using your hands to fight, for my effort yesterday at least, but as you know, those are not your most important weapons..."

"We're working on my footwork then?"

"Exactly, among some other things. And that's why I'm taking you out here. I'd like to introduce you to an old friend of mine."

When Specter saw the forming grin on Shade's face after he said that, he began thinking about giving him another 'present' for his already scarred mug. However, he wouldn't have had the time to do that anyway, as the wind changed its course and a very prominent scent reached his nose along with it. A scent which made him instantly stop in his tracks and give Shade the sternest look he has ever presented.

"Shade..." He spoke in a very annoyed and slightly angry tone, to which the blue fastbiter just let out a chuckle.

"Ah, you can smell him already! Shame... there goes my surprise... Come on, it's not much further!"

Having said that, Shade burst into an excited, headlong sprint with all his speed. Specter shook his head in disbelief, asking himself why he just couldn't say no to his friends, even new ones, even dinosaurs, but he was quick to engage into a sprint of his own and follow after him.

After around five minutes of a full speed sprint, he came to a halt next to his blue instructor, who was already impatiently waiting for him.

 _Ankylosaurus... You've got to be kidding me..._ Specter thought to himself, finally laying eyes on Shade's 'surprise'. The clubtail, which was busy searching for some edible berries, was only 20 meters away from them. And it was pretty huge, the largest Specter had ever seen, standing three meters tall and eleven meters long, making it way over six tons heavy, considering all its natural body armor.

"That's your 'friend'?" He asked Shade, still a lot of annoyance in his voice that he got once again drawn into something like this.

Shade didn't answer to that. Instead, he charged forwards, bent his tail down and jumped at the massive leaf-eater. Specter had just enough time to widen his eyes before Shade made contact with his target. This just couldn't end well for any of them.

But after two quick and stunned blinks of his eyes, he relaxed again.

Shade was peacefully standing on the leaf-eater's back now, gesturing for Specter to join him up there, with the clubtail completely ignoring the fastbiter on its back, still searching for some food around.

 _Figures... Why would such a big Ankylo be scared of a single Utahraptor?_ Specter noted to himself and moved forwards, too.

While he was closing the distance, he mustered the clubtail for a while. It was a very old male, making it even slower and less mobile than its kind already was, yet it still possessed this gigantic club on its tail. And that club was just under one meter in length, probably giving it a force of multiple tons on a focused point when it struck a target with full force. One hit from that and a Tyrannosaurus' bones at a select point would be easily crushed to dust. Most noticeable with this elder, however, were its eyes. They were both glazed and milky, which could've only meant that the leaf-eater was borderline blind by now.

But Specter knew about Ankylosaurs' senses. They didn't rely much on their sense of vision. For herbivores, they had incredibly good noses. So he was aware that the elder smelled two fastbiters right now, yet was seemingly still fine with them around.

What Specter had forgotten though, was the simple fact that the clubtail couldn't smell his size. And so, as he stood half his own length away from the leaf-eater, five meters to be exact, already preparing his legs for a quick jump, the elder decided to remind him of that. Because what the clubtail with its bad eyes now suddenly saw standing right next to it was only a huge shadow, definitely not fitting to a fastbiter but to something far more dangerous.

 **Slam!**

The clubtail slammed its tail on the ground in a threatening gesture, making Shade on its back almost lose his balance, to which Specter instantly jumped a few steps back.

"Get lost, sharptooth!" Came the addition to that action. Unlike most other leaf-eaters, however, there was no fear or anger in this elder's voice. It was more like a confident, yet still somewhat indifferent, warning.

 **"Easy there, old-timer! Not going to hurt you."** Specter responded in leaf-eater without thinking about how blatantly obvious this fact was. Of course two raptors wouldn't be able to hurt such a heavily armored leaf-eater. He still didn't really know why Shade wanted him up on the clubtail's back, but it was quite clear to him now that they would not attack the peaceful herbivore.

The elder froze in his stance for a moment, asking himself if his ears were now as bad as his eyes or if some berries had certain 'effects' on his mind, but soon slowly moved up very close to the huge, black fastbiter, sniffed at and mustered him. Since he was walking on four feet, the clubtail had his head mounted around a height of two meters, more or less where Specter's throat and chest area was situated, so he wasn't able to see his piercing yellow eyes or golden crest feathers, but could still quite clearly see the dangerous three claws on his forelimbs and especially those two massive sickle claws on his feet.

The reason why the clubtail couldn't see his eyes was because Specter glared in massive annoyance at Shade on its back, who shrugged once, still wearing this amused grin at his situation.

After he was done analyzing him just the next moment, the elder took a step back and tilted his head in surprise.

"A talking sharptooth? That I live to see this day..." The old clubtail mused.

 **"All of us can talk..."** Specter made clear with a faint note of offendedness. But he didn't want to explain this once more to a leaf-eater so he decided keep it brief. **"Just that I can speak your language, too."**

"Is that so? Well, since you are the first sharptooth to talk to _me_ in all my life, I cannot really question that, can I?" A slight chuckle left the clubtail's beak. "So then, what does a fastbiter like you want from an old clubtail?"

Specter was pretty surprised that this Ankylo kept so calm, but considering its high age and many healed injuries, it must've killed ten times as many sharpteeth for every leaf-eater Specter has killed so far.

 **"Well... Me and my friend on top of you would like to... 'borrow' your back for our training... if it's alright."**

The clubtail bent his neck around to get a look at the fastbiter on his plated back. Although he could only see a blurred, dark blue form, he recognized the scent of that sharptooth now that he really thought about it.

"Ah yes, I remember that ankle-biter. He used to come to me with his siblings quite often to annoy me with their fights... Blasted fastbiters, thanked me not even once for letting them..." The elder then threw a glance back at the black fastbiter. "No offense."

 **"None taken."** Specter responded with a smile. **"It's hard saying thanks when you can only growl and screech. So... uhm... May I?"**

The clubtail looked up at him now and shook his head.

"You don't exactly look like a lightweight... Sorry, I am just too old for this."

Specter sighed at that. Of course, he could've just taken his chances like Shade had and jumped up on the clubtail's back, ignoring the denial for permission, but he just wasn't that kind of sharptooth. A reasonable exchange would probably be better for his own health in the end, too.

 **"I'm lighter than you might think... And how about I make it worth your while? My 'sniffer' is a lot better than yours, so how about I find you some berries?"**

"You... would do that for me?" The old male asked, even more surprise in his weary, glazed eyes.

 **"Sure, why not? Not like I would have a disadvantage from that."**

"Well... Alright then... But if this is a trick to lure me to the rest of you sharpteeth, you're going to be first to have your legs broken."

This didn't come as too much of a surprise to Specter. Not only was this probably the most absurd offer this leaf-eater had ever received in its long life, but it also was a potentially fatal one. Clubtails may have had a keen sense of smell, but they were still not able to smell out lies and other things like most carnivores could. And being honest with himself, such a dirty trick would be more than fitting to Specter and actually quite nicely applicable in the future. Luckily for him though, the clubtail didn't know about his past trickeries, of course.

So he just offered a firm nod and spoke up with his firmest and most honest voice.

 **"I promise it isn't. You have my word as a sharptooth on that."**

"As if that was suddenly worth something..." The clubtail muttered to himself, which Specter still partly managed to pick up thanks to his incredible ears but didn't comment on. "Alright, fine..."

Specter answered with a quick bow of his head this time, took a short run-up and easily jumped up on the leaf-eater's back, although he had great problems balancing himself out at first because of all those bumps and little spikes between and under his toes. When he finally managed to gain a firm stance, he carefully turned around to face the clubtail's front while watching out for his own behind, not wanting to smack Shade off this moving platform with his long tail, and sniffed the air intensively, comparing the scents of some nearby berries with all the fragrances in the vast distance.

 **"Found something. There are a lot of berry bushes straight ahead."** He analyzed after a while. **"They're quite a bit away from here but it should be worth the walk. For you, at least."**

The elder grunted in affirmation and began moving. Ever so slowly, barely exceeding the five kilometers per hour walking speed of humans. Which was good for the two fastbiters because this meant that they would have a lot of time for their training. Such a massive Ankylosaurus seemed to have no problems with a combined weight of roughly one and a half tons on its back, so Specter happily turned around to Shade again.

"Took you long enough..." The blue fastbiter noted. "I didn't know you can make yourself sound this retarded."

"I'm sorry I didn't want my head crushed by him. You could've warned me..." Specter responded. "So, why are we up here?"

"Warned you? But where would've been the fun then?" Came Shade's answer, again with a wide smile on his face. "Why we're on Old Clubtail here? Well, take a guess."

Specter looked around himself, trying to make out any differences. Sure, he had to constantly hold his balance as the clubtail's back below him swung left and right while it moved, but his tail and clawed toes granted him exactly that. He had almost perfect grip between all those small spikes, and his sheer mass for a raptor ensured a firm stance.

 _He said we're working on my footwork... and we're on a big Ankylo now... But what does this have to do with...?_

He interrupted his thoughts, looking back at Shade. The blue fastbiter was presenting his combat posture, so he deduced that the little extra difficulty would be to fight on the back of a moving clubtail. How exactly this was connected to his feet and supposed to benefit him, he didn't know, but also didn't really care. Shade outmatched him by dimensions when it came to combat, after all.

So he just moved into his own combat stance, but was very surprised when he saw that Shade shook his head.

"What's wrong?" He asked, slowly dropping his stance into the usual one again.

"Keep your claws up, nothing wrong there. But..." Shade responded and quickly pointed at his eyes. "Close your right eye."

Specter let out a sigh but once more did as Shade commanded. Over the course of this day, he had already played around with only seeing through one of his eyes, so he was a little more used to that horrific circumstance of monocular vision by now. However, it still felt utterly disturbing to him and he there was still this fear of losing one of his eyes building up inside of him.

But for now, he tried to make the best out of it, so he tilted his head slightly to the right side to have the blue fastbiter in his field of view. With a visible frown on his face.

"I know this sucks..." Shade spoke up again. "But it's really important for you to get used to it. Or else... something like _this_ might happen to you."

Having said that, he raised the disfigured stump that was once his left arm into the air. Specter gulped in discomfort, another fear making itself known, but it was not as prominent as with his precious eyesight.

"Alright, let's do this then." Specter concluded the foreword to another extensive training session.

Shade nodded, and the usual procedure followed. He reached out with his right forelimb and attacked.

 _Left, down, up, strike... Right!  
_

 **Clack!**

 _Right, down, up, strike... Left!_

 **Clack!**

Their claws interlocked for the second time and Specter was very pleased how fast he managed to evade and counter Shade's simple strikes. And he could anticipate the next attack coming from Shade's left foot, so he prepared his right.

However, he was wrong.

 **Thud!**

Specter kicked out with his right foot but Shade had done the same. So instead of touching feet with him, Specter completely missed his counter and the blue fastbiter hit him square in the chest. Specter lost his balance under the sudden, stinging pain there and the movement below him, and fell over.

 **Thud!**

With another, louder thud, he slammed onto the ground. Gasping for air without a clear rhythm and his chest burning like fire, as if someone had stabbed him. And on top of that, he then picked up an additional scent.

 _Blood... My... blood..._

He quickly placed his right hand on his chest and pulled it back in front of his face. It was covered in wet, crimson liquid. He could hear that Shade had jumped off the clubtail by now and ran over to him.

"Shit... Come on, let me see..."

Specter pulled himself together, groggily rose back on his feet and presented his chest and neck to Shade. The blue fastbiter immediately proceeded to push the many formerly black, now deep red, protofeathers on the struck area aside to get a look at the injury. The silence that followed made Specter's heart almost stop beating for that short timeframe. He wanted to see the wound himself but he couldn't, the proportions of his own body just wouldn't allow him to. But one thing was clear to him. If Shade had pierced his flesh with his sickle claw there, he would die. As soon as the effects from the shock would wear out, he would slowly and painfully bleed out. There was no other option.

Then suddenly, he felt an immense increase in pain. Now he really had to pull himself together to not violently lash out with his claws.

"Argh! What the fuck are you doing?!" He growled angrily.

"Cleaning your wound, fuzzball. Now shut up and hold still." Shade just stated and continued to lick the injury.

 _Hence the vine body armors... How could I be this fucking stupid?!_ Specter noted in his mind, disgusted and angry with himself that he had made such an idiotic mistake so soon into this simple sparring match. But most of all, he deeply feared for his life.

When Shade was finally done tending to the injury, he took a step back and eyed it for another while.

"Alright, good as new. Only two minor cuts." He said in relief.

Specter placed his clean, left hand on the area again, and this time it didn't come back with a lot of blood on it. For some reason, he wanted to give Shade a tight hug and choke him to death at the same time, but instead he bowed his head deeply.

"Thank you."

"No, don't... I'm so sorry, Specter..." Shade started, still in shock himself and scents of deep sadness and regret surrounding him. "I just overdid it there... Training on Old Clubtail reminds me so much of the times I visited him with my brother and sister... and... I just... Never mind... We can stop now if..."

"No." Specter instantly interrupted. "This is my own fault. The longer I keep being such a pathetic weakling, the longer those disgusting fucking sharpteeth who killed so many innocents stay alive. I would spit on the grave of every single being that gave its live for no reason. And I refuse to let that happen! This is my war now, too."

Shade stared at him in awe for a while, unable to understand two particular ones of Specter's words which had made his whole speech so brutally honest and convincing, but soon gave another nod and jumped back on the clubtail's back, who had stopped his movement the moment Specter had fallen off.

Specter needed a few more moments to catch his breath and calm down. Ultimately though, he regained his composure, went over to the clubtail, gave him an assuring nod of his own and prepared himself to jump again.

 **"I'm fine. Let's get you your berries now."**

* * *

 **A few hours later:**

The two fastbiters were both on the ground by now, walking next to their massive leaf-eater companion, much to the surprise of the many smaller dinosaurs they had encountered on the trip. More than half an hour had passed since they concluded their training and Shade wanted to go home now but Specter pressed him to stay and keep his promise to the clubtail. Mostly, however, he wanted him to tell him more and show him more. He never questioned Shade's logic only once after what happened on their first round of fighting, and quickly began to see all the hidden details and extreme efficiency in the blue fastbiter's thinking.

The reason Specter was supposed to learn how to fight with one eye closed was simply to get him to perceive his surroundings in a different way. Just like he had already done instinctively, sadly also unknowingly, when he closed both of his eyes on his very first day as a fastbiter when he killed that rampaging threehorn. Instead of having an overflow of information through his eyes, many of which useless, he had to learn how to concentrate on the small details, also by using his already honed sense of hearing. For example that Shade had only feinted to kick at him with his left foot to use his right instead. In hindsight, Specter could quite nicely see that attack coming now by watching the movements of his opponent's tail and hearing how he pressed the sickle claw on his left foot onto the clubtail's back to get more grip.

He was not pleased with himself any longer, however. The two slowly healing wounds below the feathers on his chest were a constant reminder now, making him always aware that he still had so much more to learn until he would be completely ready for this world. If he could ever call himself that. This way of thinking has laid in his thoughts for much longer already, true, but just as he tried to get it inside his thick head so often before, mere thoughts could never prepare one for reality.

For now, he was just glad he could relax a bit.

 **"We're very close now."**

"Yes, I know... You really did not lie to me." The clubtail answered in faint surprise.

A few steps later, the trio broke into a wide clearing with dozens of berry bushes of many different types. Specter was expecting the clubtail to charge ahead and gorge himself on the tasty berries but instead, the elder kept very relaxed and mustered him for another while, before gesturing with his head towards a select few bushes.

"Here, let me show you something."

Specter followed after him until they stood in front of a bunch of bushes which carried lots of pitch black berries.

"I do not know if you sharpteeth can eat them... but these here are very special. They helped me a lot whenever I got injured."

 _I've seen them grow around our home, too. They're some sort of narcotic then? Could sure use some of that good stuff for the next weeks or months... My stomach will kill me, though..._ _Death by flatulence..._

Following his line of thinking, Specter carefully picked one berry with his claws and threw it into his mouth, crushing it below his tongue. An extremely bitter taste greeted his senses and he visibly contorted his face as he swallowed it down. But after that, he experienced a very special, lightheaded feeling and the pain on his chest seemed to slowly disappear.

 _Woah... I guess... this is the closest I'll ever get to a smoke again... or certain other 'herbs'... These here will definitely not harm me as much...  
_

 **"Thank you. For your patience and... this here. But... why tell me this?"** Specter asked. **"Why still help a sharptooth?"**

"Why not? It's not like I would have a disadvantage from that." The elder imitated Specter's statement from earlier.

Specter was a little bit surprised by that answer, but accepted it with a friendly smile and looked over at Shade for a moment.

 **"The two of us will get going now. Was nice meeting you. Next time I'll bring the berries in advance."**

"Next time...? Well, I am almost looking forward to it." Came the answer, and Specter was just about to walk away when the clubtail raised his voice once more. "One more thing... In that... 'language' of yours, how do you say 'thank you'?"

"Thank you." The black fastbiter answered firmly for a second time, in the sharptooth language, and went off now, leaving the elder with a very surprised look on his face after hearing this highly distinctive, soft growl, almost like a harmless purr, so unfitting to a predator.

He had heard this growl a few times before, but no time to inquire as the two sharpteeth disappeared from the scene. He didn't even ask for their names, should those creatures have any. Maybe next time then, the old clubtail figured, turning back to the berries the big fastbiter had found for him.

"What's so funny?" Shade asked curiously when he saw that Specter was still smiling.

"Nothing. It's just that... when you first 'introduced' me to him... For a moment there I thought you were going to attack him."

"Attack him?" He answered in exaggeration but still honest shock. "I might be insane, fuzzball, but I'm not stupid."

"You killed a fully grown longneck all alone, something I thought was impossible for us fastbiters when we're not in a big pack, something I thought was hard to pull off even for a two-footer like Chaser, but you're scared of an old clubtail?" Specter retorted in jest.

"Yeah, I am. And you better be, too."

He tilted his head at Shade's honest response and lecture.

"How so?"

"Because unlike leaf-eaters like her, Old Clubtail makes no mistakes. She didn't fight for her own life but still for that of her dying child. Old Clubtail doesn't care about anyone but himself, though, and that makes him unpredictable. It makes him stronger and more dangerous than you can imagine. I, however, care too much myself. And this is something that will get me killed eventually, just like that longneck. All it takes is one mistake. All it takes is for you to care too much, and you'll die. Beware of those that have nothing left to lose, Specter, for they fight only for themselves."

Specter pondered about that statement for a while but found that he couldn't disagree, he even fully shared Shade's opinion. This was one of the many reasons he was a loner and yet another reason why he never wanted to bond with another being in his life, in this world with a so called mate. It was simple fear. As a human, it had been the fear of betrayal and deception. As a raptor now, it was the everyday fear of loss. He just couldn't live with himself anymore if anything would happen to his loved ones, he affirmed to himself.

In the end, although he wanted to tell Shade that he would not let him die like that, that it would not be appropriate even saying it like he had, Specter kept his silence, gave him a firm nod and decided to remember his statement for all his life as he accelerated his pace along with the blue fastbiter.

* * *

They arrived rather quickly at their home and could see the remaining members of their small pack. Chaser was relaxing right now, probably preparing himself for the daily hunt at a later point on this day, and right next to his bulky, prone form stood Alba, her blue eyes firmly planted on the oncoming fastbiters.

Specter decided to let Shade do the talking for him from now on, and he didn't have to wait long until that happened. They were around 50 meters away from the others when the blue fastbiter spoke up.

"So, ready for a little challenge?" He asked Specter.

"Always!" Came the boisterous answer which caused Specter immediately to gasp as the stinging pain on his chest came back. So he lowered his voice a little. "What... sort of challenge?"

"Her." Shade said and pointed at his sister. "You manage to bring her down, you're ready for everything. Maybe even Chaser."

 _Alba? She's bigger than him, faster than him, maybe not much stronger, considering her disorder... but still... How...?_

"How am I supposed to do that?" Specter continued his thoughts aloud. "If I'm not ready for you when you're not even giving it your all then... how am I supposed to beat...?"

"Relax." Shade interrupted calmly, the two of them by now only a longneck-length away from the other sharpteeth. "I don't expect you to win today. That challenge goes as long as you need for it. But I would like to see how you approach. Both of you, actually. It's easier looking at a fight when you're not taking part in it. Just remember, all she knows she's learned from me."

"Fine... I'll try. But... could you please tell her to... you know... not give me another one of _these_." Specter said and pointed at his wounded chest.

"That's her decision, so no promises..." Came the snarky answer that concluded this conversation, as they finally arrived. Shade spoke to his sister next. "Our big fuzzball is making really nice progress. Willing to lend a claw now?"

Alba didn't vocalize her answer but simply nodded once, if reluctantly, after mustering the black fastbiter in front of her for a moment. Much to the surprise of Specter though, who had thought she would deny that offer once more. That she had not made him a little bit happy and he was looking forward to see if Alba would really turn out to fight like a bigger, beefed-up version of Shade. Noticing the ache on his chest again, however, he was quick to take that back.

Not wanting to annoy Chaser and bring the wrath of an angry two-footer upon themselves, the three fastbiters moved away from him and to another clearing in this big forest that was their home. Having arrived there, Specter and Alba placed themselves in the middle, presenting their fighting stances, and Shade sat down a little bit further away from the two bigger sharpteeth to observe.

"Alright, show me what you've got. Begin!" The blue fastbiter spoke.

The black and white fastbiters immediately did so, circling around, evading and jumping at each other. And he just couldn't help but smile, seeing how his youngest sister and Specter were going for it. This right there was what he had always dreamt of as the oldest of formerly four siblings, and the only survivor of his parents' first clutch of eggs. All he ever wanted from early on in his life was to teach his brothers and sisters that would follow after him how to become strong fastbiters, how to survive in this world. Alas, his dream had seemingly been crushed by those sharpteeth that came to kill everyone but himself and Alba those few cold times ago. But maybe, just maybe, that dream of his was still alive. This big fuzzball might've not been his brother, he neither resembled him even remotely in looks nor in scents, but maybe he could at least think he would be. Unlike his brother, other sister and pack however, he would not let him die. Not again.

While Shade was dwelling in partly happy, partly melancholic thoughts, Specter had his senses on overdrive as he tried to adapt to Alba's sheer speed and agility. With her attacking him, he had double the forelimbs and twice the dangerous claws to dodge, and she didn't even try to use her feet to attack just yet. Also, she was a good 20 centimeters taller than Shade and thus had no problems reaching every part of his body with her weapons.

 _She counters every move before I can even make it... I can't even get near her..._ Specter noted to himself while dodging claws left and right. But then he had an idea, as he remembered Shade's little hint from before this fight. _'Just remember, all she knows she's learned from me'. Maybe... I can..._

He made up his mind. He knew he wouldn't be able to beat Alba anyway, but maybe he could at least give her a little scratch, show her that he was at least a little capable by now. That would've been a great achievement for him already, he figured.

By now, Shade was focusing fully on the sparring match and it wasn't too much of a surprise to him that Alba easily maintained to hold the upper claws in it. However, suddenly, that changed as Specter changed up his tactic and went forwards now. The black fastbiter bent his tail to his left side and pushed the sickle claw on his left foot into the ground, an obvious sign that he would now kick out with his right.

 _Too obvious, fuzzball... She won't fall for that..._

But Specter did otherwise. In the blink of an eye, he mirrored his stance again and kicked out with his left foot. And before Alba could react, she had a sickle claw pressing against her throat.

 _Huh... You copied and improved what I did to you earlier... Impressive... What're you going to do now, sis?_

Both Specter and Alba froze in their stances, and Specter was expecting that he had actually won this fight. For some odd reason, though, Alba was wearing the slightest of smiles, almost imperceptible. For a second, he thought that he had finally made an impression on her, but he would be proven wrong again as he felt something move the sickle claw on his right foot. He had just enough time to tilt his head and get a look at what's going on down below him, just enough time for one last thought to cross his mind.

 _Clever girl..._

 **Thud!**

Alba had hooked the sickle claw on her left foot into that of Specter's right, and pulled back her left leg. With that move, she pulled his standing leg away from him and forced the huge fastbiter to lose his balance and land on his side. Then she simply placed her right foot on his neck and let her sickle claw tap against his vulnerable throat in the usual display of victory. She was still annoyed by how easy it was to defeat such a big fastbiter, although she had to admit that he's gotten a lot better since the last day. Before she would let him go, however, she mustered his prone form for a while. In spite of his defeat, Specter was wearing a smile.

And it was at that moment when something inside her suddenly clicked. All the memories from the past flooded her mind at the sight of this fuzzball. This horrible sleep story she had the night when he showed up. After one blink of her eyes, that fastbiter on the ground didn't have black feathers anymore. Now they were grey and white, and he had this white head with dark spots around his eyes and nostrils, looking like a bare skull. She blinked two more times but what she saw didn't change. This was the fastbiter from back then, now helplessly at her mercy. And he was still smiling, a happy smile. A mocking smile, mocking her that she couldn't kill him. She didn't think any further. She wouldn't need to think any further. She would go against her orders, maybe that would get her killed in the end as well, but that didn't matter at all to her right now.

Came the next blink of her eyes, she pushed her sickle claw down on his neck.

 **Slam!**

Just a moment later, Shade slammed into his sister's side and threw her away, making her slither over the ground until she ripped through it with her claws and came to a stop. The siblings' eyes crossed for a brief moment, stern yellow gaze mixing with ice cold blue. And then Alba turned around and sprinted off. Shade immediately lost sight of her as she disappeared in the underbrush.

Panting heavily, he walked over to Specter's still prone form. The black fastbiter had his eyes wide open in shock.

"Are you alright?"

"She... She tried to... kill me..." Specter answered in disbelief, pulling his left hand back from his neck. It had slight stains of blood on it. Had Shade hesitated only half a second more, that strike would've ended his life in one blow, he deduced. Before he spoke up again, he rose back on his feet and took a few deep breaths. "Why... does she hate me this much? What did I... do wrong?"

Shade let out another one of those emotionally exhausted sighs, thinking about how to put it.

"It's not about you... It's... It's just that you remind her..."

"Of them?" Specter interrupted, already seeing Shade's admitting look. "Isn't that right?"

Shade offered a nod.

"What... did they do to her?" Specter asked again after a while.

"Horrible things... and I wasn't there to stop it..." Came the answer. "They let her watch how they killed our parents... She managed to escape afterwards but... do you remember what I've told you about her speed? That this was the reason she survived? Well, take a guess what they wanted to do to her if she'd been slower..."

Specter's yellow eyes narrowed to slits and he angrily flashed all of his razor-sharp teeth after hearing this. He seriously needed to hold back right now to not to something unreasonable. It took him almost a minute until his expression softened up and he could speak again.

"I promise you... Once I feel ready for it... Whoever did this to both of you... and to Chaser's brother and family... I will rip him apart... and I will enjoy it..."

"So will I." Shade answered with the same determination in his voice. "But for now, let's meet up with Chaser. We will go on a hunt soon."

Specter gave him a firm nod and followed after Shade, despite this horrible experience very much looking forward to another hunt with him and the two-footer. He promptly decided to just stay away from Alba until they've resolved this little problem. He didn't know how he wanted to do that for all the time, but what he did know was that he had never been so determined to take multiple lives.

 _Sooner or later, they will prove to be a problem even for Seeker and they others... maybe even the Great Valley... I have to help them kill those monsters... and I will do it soon!_

* * *

 **And this concludes Chapter 17. I wanted to have it finished by the 1. Jan, I even worked through the night on the 31., but didn't manage to do it.**

 **So, here's to Happy New Year of 2016!**

 **I would like to use this opportunity to say a few things.  
Firstly, I want to thank everyone who has supported me thus far with reviews, favs, follows or simple clicks and still plans to do so in the future. It really means a lot to me that people like what I enjoy writing on. I've enjoyed reading every review, even very critical ones as they have improved the story a lot in my opinion, and I've learned a great deal of things over the course of my writing. So, thank you guys for that!**

 **Next, I would like to mention that this month will be quite busy for me, so I probably won't have time to write until February.**

 **Now then, please do tell me what you think about this installment and as always:  
Take care, have a great start into this new year, and have a nice day!**


	19. Chapter 18: Foresight

**Chapter 18: Foresight**

 ** _"The best way to keep something bad from happening is to see it ahead of time... and you can't see it if you refuse to face the possibility." - William S. Burroughs  
_**

Like a shadow, Specter was moving through the night. Alone, invisible and silent. He only had one thing on his mind and his nose was leading him to it. He didn't really want to see that horrible scenery once more but had no choice. At least that's what he was telling himself right now.

 _I just have make sure... Why didn't I think of this when I was there with Chaser? I let my damn anger get the better of me... What else did I miss while I let my feelings get in my way and blind me? No, it just can't be... I refuse to believe that's how it happened..._

The hunt earlier went without any complications, though Specter felt out of place and left alone again. Chaser had told him that he was in no rush to observe his newly acquired capabilities just yet and neither did it remotely interest him that Alba almost ripped the black fastbiter's throat open, although he did visibly frown after hearing this. The two-footer had basically forced it to be a completely normal hunt. The result was that he, Shade and Specter hunted themselves two swimmers. One for Chaser alone and another for the three fastbiters, which Specter was grateful about and even left a bit of his own share for Alba to feed on at a later point in the night. He would never forget what she had almost done to him but he knew just as well that a constant grudge wouldn't get him anywhere. That simple hunt really cleared his mind, too. He didn't even need to resort to killing this time. All he had done was chase the leaf-eaters right into his companions' claws and teeth. He was slow for a fastbiter, true, but he was still faster than the already very fast swimmers. Which was a good enough attribute to him, especially given the much better and more deadly weaponry at his disposal, compared to other fastbiters.

So by now, he wasn't interested in hunting, killing or fighting anymore. Neither was he in any shape to sleep, however. All he wanted to do now, just like Shade had been in the process of teaching him over the course of this day, was observe the little things. All those small details that would remain unperceived to the superficial eye. And his eyes, he deduced, had been so incredibly superficial that it pained him to think about it in retrospect.

He stopped in front of a big depression. The stench coming from down there has bothered him for almost half an hour already.

 _No other way around it... Here goes..._

He took one last deep breath, stretched his muscles in an effort to prepare himself for the physical and emotional strain ahead and moved down.

The sight of the six murdered Argentinosaurs and their few children greeted his eyes for the second time. Now, however, he didn't feel any anger anymore. He was just sad that all of those creatures had been killed for no reason and were slowly rotting away. The ground below his feet was still darkened with dried blood and there was a certain coldness that radiated from this area, a coldness from which his warming feathers couldn't protect him. It was almost as if the ghosts of the fallen were still here, still waiting to be set free but until that happened they were watching over their own, mutilated corpses so that no other sharptooth would dare gorging itself on their flesh. For some reason though, they were tolerating this lone fastbiter, this natural adversary, this hunter and killer, pressing him to find something among their carcasses that would help him avenge them.

It made a shiver run down his spine, all the way through the seven meters of his tail, making it stiffer than it normally was, and even the golden feathers at its tip seemed to lose color for a moment.

Specter didn't want to stay here for any second longer than he absolutely needed to, so he instantly began his search. All he wanted to find was something. A feather, a squashed body, a severed head, a distinctive limb, a tooth, a sickle claw... Anything that would help him identify exactly _what_ the sharpteeth everyone wanted dead really were. The basic language of this time just wasn't suited at all for such things. A fastbiter could be anything from a tiny Velociraptor, 50cm tall, over a mid-sized Deinonychus, around a meter tall, all the way to a Utahraptor, around 180cm to 200cm tall, in Specter's case even 275cm. A longneck could be a relatively 'small' Alamosaurus, four meters tall, but it could also be a gargantuan Argentinosaurus, standing over seven meters tall, a creature that was pretty much invulnerable once fully grown. It annoyed him now more than ever. He wanted proof of exact species. It was the least he would demand when his own life was on the line for a cause that shouldn't even have concerned him in the first place. Which it did now, however.

The first thing that caught his eye was extensive feeding damage on the two corpses of the biggest longnecks. But he instantly dismissed that again.

 _That was Chaser, no doubt about it... He probably didn't even feel uncomfortable being here, cold son of a... Anyway, those bite marks are perfectly fitting to a T-Rex and nothing else... Besides, they weren't here when we first found those poor bastards... No way some other big carnivore managed to trespass our territory without any of us noticing it after this little 'incident' here... Hm... I wonder... Alba seems like an excellent sentry, maybe she would know or could at least give me some more details... Nah, forget it, Specter... She's gonna try and kill me again... Let's just leave her to herself, if that's what she so desperately wants. Back to the matter at claws...  
_

So he continued his search, yellow eyes scanning the whole area in rapid succession, trying to make out anything that didn't fit. Shortly afterwards, Specter arrived at one of the formerly pregnant and lively, now ice cold, disfigured and gutted, females. What he only saw now was that her hind legs had some deep yet still rather narrow bite marks and ripped out flesh.

 _I know what kind of damage my own teeth and those of my fastbiter friends do... We lack the bite force to dig that deep into our prey... as I should've known from the start but just had to find out with that female swimmer, Wary... No, that was not a raptor of any kind or size... And it also wasn't a T-Rex or something even remotely looking like Chaser or Path... The wound's just too narrow for that... So he really was right with 'horned sharpteeth'... A Ceratosaurus took a bite out of her... Must have... They're the only ones which combine nasty teeth with a decently powerful bite and shape of head to leave this layout of an injury..._

Yet, he was anything but satisfied with his find. It was just impossible that none of the attacking sharpteeth had died in their assault, Specter thought again. Attacking a herd of healthy, adult longnecks of any kind was guaranteed suicide, no matter how many sharpteeth would be working together and no matter of which kind the longnecks were. After all, almost every Sauropod was able to whip its tail with supersonic speed, were it given the opportunity to move into a posture do so. He had yet to see such a brutal attack coming from one of those gigantic leaf-eaters but he was quite sure that this gray Diplodocus named Doc, not called the 'Whiptail' without reason, had utterly destroyed numerous sharpteeth with that fatal technique in his past. Specter always had problems believing this one particular story about him but figured that a supersonic tail whip to the neck was probably the fateful attack that killed the 'meanest sharptooth of all', the two-footer which had spread fear across the lands before Chaser came to take that alias among others for many years. And basically, this Argentinosaurus herd here consisted of six 'Docs' which were up to almost two meters taller.

No, there must've been more he still couldn't see, smell or hear.

But alas, there was simply nothing to hear. Dead silence lay in the motionless air. There was nothing to smell. Only the stench of the earliest stage of decomposing flesh and the universal scent of dried blood filled his nose. The only other option was for Specter to see something in this dark night. And he couldn't do it. He spent minute after minute running around this place in search for any hidden details but couldn't find any. His sharp, yellow eyes granted him night vision to a highly usable extent but they didn't grant him something like a natural X-ray device. Should a sharptooth lie beneath one of those 70-ton longnecks, there was no way for him to see or get to it.

 _Argh... It's no use... Let's face it, they all made it out alive..._

He let out a heavy sigh and raised his right forelimb close to his face, opening up his claws. He was holding a single, black berry, which he had picked from a bush around his new home, in his hand. He wanted to get back his ritual. The ritual from his human days, his last cigarette of the day. At least something similar to it. So he had originally planned to save up this berry for when he was back with his pack, just before going to sleep.

But now he didn't care anymore. He was so frustrated that he found absolutely nothing he didn't assume before already that he just lusted for a little bit of distraction for his mind. He played around with the berry between his three clawed fingers for a while before flicking it into his mouth and slowly crushing it below his tongue. Immediately, the juice overwhelmed his senses and unfolded the anticipated effects. He was beginning to feel slightly dizzy and the faint ache on his chest and throat disappeared. However, not every effect was anticipated.

Because then it happened. Almost like a fresh coffee, the strong smell of the berry's juice cleared and 'reset' his olfactory center and all of a sudden, he was able to pick up a select few more scents with his nose. Amongst which, a toxic scent.

 _Woah... From where...?_

He shook his head, concentrating solely on his breathing, but nothing changed. He still smelled something slightly toxic. He proceeded to sniff the air profoundly, locked on to the source of the scent and followed after it. A few steps later, he was standing in front of biggest longneck, the dead male Chaser had seemingly gorged himself the most on but luckily left the rather small head untouched. Judging by the three mutilated younglings next to him, whose scents were very similar to another one he very much remembered, Specter could only assume that this was Arga's deceased mate. But the scent he really was interested in came from the huge longneck's mouth.

 _Alright then, buddy... Say ahhh._

He lowered himself to the ground and pried the leaf-eater's jaw open with his claws, reached under its cold tongue and grabbed something, pulling it back out. When he opened his claws again and laid eyes on what the longneck had in its mouth until now, his eyes widened in shock and surprise.

 _What?! No... This can't be... How did they...?_

It was what was left of a few mushrooms. A very special kind of mushroom. A red one with many white spots on it. No matter how it looked, however, it smelled unhealthy to him, and that was more than sufficient.

 _A... prehistoric... fly agaric... Did those longnecks really...? No... It can't be coincidence... That... was them! They... somehow... drugged them... before they killed them..._ Specter thought to himself in horror and confusion, but also in awe at this tactic as he started to put the pieces together. _Maybe... Maybe this is why she didn't recognize them as raptors or Ceratos, said they were not of my kind... She had her mind still messed up by those agarics... And maybe... this is why they all defended themselves so poorly... But... her mate didn't eat those mushrooms here... I mean... Even if he was the only longneck to not eat them, or at least not many of them, we're still talking about a damn Titanosaur... One of those alone can easily kill a whole pack of us without even trying too hard... even if he was slightly drugged... I still don't believe none of them died... Unless..._

Specter threw the mushrooms away, into the dirt, by now only interested in the second scent he barely managed to pick up. It was the scent of blood and it was definitely not longneck blood, there was enough of that in the air to compare and differentiate.

 _Unless they did... Unless the longnecks really killed some of them...  
_

But Specter had to make sure. After taking merely ten more steps, he came to a halt right in front of a pool of dried blood, a bit further away from all the others. He bowed down his head and almost buried his nostrils in the ground while sniffing at it.

 _Yes, from a carnivore, definitely... But I d_ _ _on't know this scent... doesn't smell similar to a raptor..._ and the blood's too old to tell from which kind, sex and whatnot... Actually... it smells like male and female blood... at once... How...? Nah, how should that be possible? Shouldn't have trusted in a damn berry...  
_

He raised his head again and extensively scanned his surroundings another time. It looked like he had finally found everything there was to find.

 _Ok, so at least one of them got heavily injured... maybe even died... But where are the damn bodies? I can't..._

Grumbling in annoyance, Specter turned around and prepared himself to return to the others. Surely, there was nothing else of importance here now. And if there was, he was just too dumb to find it.

 **Splat!**

"What the...?!"

He had just enough time to swing his tail around and pierce the ground with the sickle claw on his left foot to hold his balance, as the slightly wet ground below his right foot slipped away from under it. He staggered for another moment but soon regained his stance and stared at the place on which he had almost slipped on and could've potentially dislocated his leg.

Below some mud, something lay hidden. Specter used his foot claws to scratch it free and as soon as he was done with that, surprise and slight disgust filled his eyes.

 _An arm...?_

He picked up the severed forelimb, wiped it halfway clean with his claws and eyed it, twisting it around in his hands. It was tiny, only around 40cm long, way tinier than Chaser's or Chomper's arms, and it had a 'hand' with four fingers on it, with just as tiny claws. Most surprisingly, however, was the fact that it basically consisted of only one single, completely stiff piece of bone with a ball joint at the end sticking out from the flesh, meaning that it had been ripped right out of the respective sharptooth's shoulder. And also, it still had a few true feathers on it, just like Specter's own arms had. Instead of being black with golden contours, however, the severed arm's feathers were dark gray with bright blue outlines.

 _A Ceratosaurus has four fingers, so that fits... But a ball joint? That's it? No upper arm? Only a lower arm and a hand? That's the whole thing? And feathers? They're really feathered? And what's with those pathetic claws? And... how the hell did a Sauropod manage to rip it off?  
_

He couldn't come to a conclusion. He could only imagine what could've possibly happened on the day those sharpteeth attacked.

* * *

 **Three days earlier:**

The massive, horned predator gazed upon the scenery, enjoying the sight before him, especially that female longneck in the distance, slowly and groggily limping away in pain and agony. The ground below him was as red as the two horns over his eyes, almost as if they reflected the bloodstained earth.

He had not taken part in delivering this little message. He was far too important to get his claws and feathers bloody, after all. In fact, he didn't even have the pleasure to see it. But he almost regretted it in the end. It certainly looked like he had missed out on some serious fun, he deduced.

 _Hmm... The boss' idea was brilliant, I must say... They actually devoured them all, even though a damn fastbiter could smell that eating them gets you killed... Retarded sap-suckers didn't even stand a chance, it seems. Fat, oversized idiots..._

"Sir?"

He averted his eyes to another one of his kind. His youngest brother, who was only half an arm's length smaller than him. He was about to reach adulthood and still chased after his big brother to become like him, chasing after a goal he would never achieve. He found it pathetic to witness. He was disgusted by how much he cared about his so called 'loved ones', how much he looked more like their mother instead of their strong father, both of which long since dead. Instead of those menacing, blood-red horns and crimson outlines on the feathering, his youngest brother's horns were almost white and his feathers' contours were blue. But it somehow filled him with pride nonetheless that his little brother was so determined to become strong. And he was determined himself to make him strong.

"Report." He just stated in his usual manner.

"We let one alive, just like you ordered. But... we... Well..."

"Out with it." The bigger sharptooth interrupted in annoyance now.

"We lost ten fastbiters... and Asta... she's... she's..."

"Skull will take care of that. _We_ lost _one_ sharptooth. His kind does not concern us." Came the cold answer. "Concerning Asta... You know the drill. No traces. She's your problem, not mine."

He couldn't care less that his little brother's mate had messed up and had to be disposed of now. Actually, thinking about it, he could. He cared even less about those ten dead ankle-biter fuzzballs.

"But... Bloodhorn! Sir! She's... still alive! All she needs is..."

"Later." Bloodhorn firmly interrupted once more, eyeing one of the gutted female longnecks now and nodded in her corpse's direction. He recognized the sorts of wounds on her. It was his very own fighting style to sometimes sharpen his horns and use them to slice his targets open and watch them slowly bleed out. "I take it that was you?"

"Yes... just like you've taught me." His brother answered as happy as he managed to, given his worries about Asta. Nevertheless, he was expecting his oldest brother and leader to acknowledge him as a capable killer now.

"Just like I've taught you, huh?" Bloodhorn started again and walked over to the corpse. "Tell me then, Aries, what is _this_?"

Having said that, he used his tail to point at the deep bite wounds in that longneck's hind leg. Facing Aries after that gesture, he could see his brother's eyes wide open in horror and realization.

"I... I was... a bit hungry and I thought..."

Before he had time to finish, Bloodhorn walked right up to him and pressed his narrow snout against Aries', slightly rubbing it while he was tilting his head left and right, loud cracking sounds emerging from his neck.

"And now tell me, brother, what exactly were the orders I gave you?"

"Kill... the longnecks... But let one alive..."

"Good! Good! And did I also say 'eat the longnecks'?"

His question was retorted with a few nervous, shuddering shakes of his brother's head. Bloodhorn then pulled his own head back and began stalking around Aries.

"Oh, brother, what should I do with you? See, I'm trying to make this so easy, especially for you. I'm really trying to. I say 'kill the longnecks' and you kill the longnecks. I say 'eat the longnecks' and you are _allowed_ to eat the longnecks. Not the other way around. Kill the longnecks... eat the longnecks. _Kill_ the longnecks... _eat_ the longnecks. Hmm? Do you see the difference?" His brother hastily nodded at this so Bloodhorn continued. "You know how much I despise having to do this, yet I still do. Must I be even more precise from now on?"

"No, sir! I... I promise it will never happen again!" Aries said once his brother arrived in front of him again.

"Good. I will forget it then... this time. Now, where is Asta?"

Aries gulped uncomfortably and made a wiping gesture over his own flank with his right forelimb, suggesting Bloodhorn to follow him. The 'arms' of their kind were pretty much useless for anything except those select few signs. This kind of sharptooth couldn't even move but two of its four fingers and neither could it situate its forelimbs forwards and in front of its chest, let alone attack something with them.

While he was following after his brother towards a big, male longneck corpse, Bloodhorn used the time to analyze the scenery for another while. His other two brothers had already left the scene and returned to their territory, it seemed. The ten dead fastbiters, some of them having their heads crushed, others their entire bodies or legs, and some others didn't have any visible injuries from the outside, were already lined up and Skull was in the process of piercing each one's throat with his sickle claw once more.

 _Good thinking, fuzzball. Enough traitors among you ankle-biters already..._

The other 19 surviving fastbiters that have come along were either still picking up the remaining feathers of the dead from the mud or standing in a circle around the corpses, eagerly awaiting to make them 'disappear' quite soon. First from the scene, then from this world. Nobody would learn of their joint presence here.

Bloodhorn reminded himself again to not feel any sympathy, and he had to chuckle now that he thought about it. He didn't feel any, anyway, so he did it just for the fun of it. Besides, ten dead fastbiters were no loss. Those weaklings were only a mere fraction of Skull's extensive 'recruitment' together with the humble help of their boss. At least those fastbiters existed in great numbers in their old home lands. At least _that_ they had going for them.

He focused on the more important matters again as he and his brother came to a halt behind the male longneck corpse. The female horned sharptooth of concern lay before them, her dark green and few white feathers tainted with dirt and blood. She was unconscious and terribly injured, her whole flank ripped open for some reason and there was even some blood coming out of her ears. But she was still breathing faintly with closed eyes.

"How did that happen?" Bloodhorn asked plainly.

"That longneck here..." Aries replied and pointed with his tail at the big carcass behind him. "He didn't eat all of those... things... We didn't know... It all went so fast! I heard a loud boom and then... then... Asta was..."

For once, Bloodhorn wanted his brother to finish his sentence but just like always, he had to do it for him.

"She was reckless and paid for it. She's no use to us now. End it and take care of her body."

Aries' eyes widened in shock and despair, rapidly switching between his brother and fatally injured mate.

"No... No, you cannot ask this of me! We can still... There must be..."

Bloodhorn let out an annoyed sigh and swiftly moved forwards. He simply placed his right foot on Asta's neck, put all his weight on it and then turned it sideways.

 **Crack!**

"Asta! No! You... You monster! What have you...?!"

 **Slice!**

Before Aries could finish, Bloodhorn swung his head at his side and sliced a deep cut into his flank with one of his horns, making him roar in pain and fall over, landing on the ground back to back with his dead mate. Following that, the massive sharptooth placed his foot on his brother's injured side, applying some pressure on the wound, making him twitch and almost cry in agony now.

"You know what happens to those who disobey me. And I already let your clear refusal of my orders slide."

"No... No! Please, brother! I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... I..." Aries already started begging.

But Bloodhorn would have none of it. He already prepared himself for his next move and bowed down his head close to Aries'.

"It pains me that I have to do this. Maybe I am a monster but I love you, brother, you know that. Why do you force me to do this? Why do you always refuse to listen?"

No other words should be exchanged for now. Came the next moment, he bit down on Aries' forelimb, gave his head a jerk, which was accompanied by a disgusting popping sound and followed by that of tearing flesh and muscles, and raised his head back up with his brother's forelimb between his teeth. Then he just threw the severed limb away. With a neutral expression on his face, he watched how Aries rolled from side to side, screaming even harder and blood oozing out from where his right arm once was. How much he hated his youngest brother's lack of discipline, he couldn't even begin to describe. He didn't know how it was even possible that Aries was so weak in comparison to his other three brothers.

What he did know, however, was that he had enough of this fuss. So he placed his foot on the prone sharptooth's side once more to hold him in place and the screaming stopped instantly. His next words had a coldness in them that made Aries' blood freeze in his veins.

"Now clean up this mess. All of it. Alone. And for one last time... No traces."

* * *

 **The present:**

Specter was still playing around with the severed arm in his claws, pondering about how that could've happened. There was only a single explanation he could come up with, though. Others, he couldn't even think of or simply didn't consider allocating his brainpower to. They were either ridiculously unlikely or just didn't make sense to him.

 _Maybe her mate actually managed to rip it off in some sort of last stand... and then ate the body. Yeah, right... Argh... What does it matter now? I got what I came for... Nothing else here... I guess I'll come back once nothing but their bones are left... Shouldn't take more than a few fucking months with creatures of that size... By that time, I'll pay them a visit as a ghost myself...  
_

He sighed loudly, and to finish his self-mocking line of thinking, he threw the arm into the dirt as well, turned around and sprinted back towards his pack.

* * *

After around 30 minutes of speedy movement, Specter laid eyes on the big forest that was his home. He didn't head straight to the sleeping area but took the longer route instead to report to his leader, like his more disciplined new self was supposed to, arriving at Chaser's usual spot now. The two-footer had just concluded a discussion with Shade, it seemed, and as soon as he laid eye on Specter, he gave Shade a nod to which the blue fastbiter offered a short grunt and gestured for the big fastbiter to come over. Specter deduced that he would not be allowed to sleep all too soon but have another important talk with his leader and new friend ahead of him, which he didn't really mind. He was actually quite a bit looking forward to it.

"So? Find anything?" Chaser asked when Specter stood in front of his relaxed, prone form.

Specter let out an exhausted sigh and laid down on his haunches, too, before giving his answer.

"Nothing you didn't tell me already. Horned sharpteeth did it." He said and could see Chaser nod at this, but he wasn't entirely finished. "However, one of the longnecks had some mushrooms in his mouth... Bad ones. Mushrooms that make you see everything twice or thrice and basically get you killed if you're under attack..."

"Sap-suckers are stupid, especially longnecks, do I really have to repeat myself?" Chaser immediately commented on that in quite a mocking fashion.

"Anyway..." Specter continued in slight annoyance. "I think they still killed one of the sharpteeth but I couldn't find a body."

"Of course you couldn't." Shade spoke up, and Specter tilted his head in confusion. So he explained. "Isn't it obvious? They've dragged away and eaten everyone who died."

"They what?!" Specter exclaimed. "They... eat their own kind?"

"Obviously..." Chaser then stated.

"But they killed six adult longnecks! Why not eat them?"

"Didn't your friends tell you how my father managed to keep his many fastbiter underlings under control? Fear is the easiest way to bind someone to you. You either obey or get eaten. What choice would you make?"

Specter had heard of Red Claw's and especially Calin's antics but always assumed that to be an isolated case. He was utterly horrified hearing that it was apparently quite the casual thing in this world, although he also knew that Tyrannosaurs were the prime example of carnivores with cannibalistic tendencies and predators in general wouldn't pass on a meal, even if it was one of their own species. Still, eating those who had given their lives, fought side by side with one another? It disgusted him to the core.

"So that's why an arm was all I found..." Specter muttered to himself, but it was loud enough for the others to hear. And Shade audibly gasped in shock.

"You... You found what?" The blue fastbiter sputtered, his usual demeanor completely wiped.

"The arm of a horned sharptooth. Someone must've ripped it out. Why is that so...?" Specter shut his mouth at once as he laid eyes on Shade's stump.

 _Oh, fuck..._

"Do... you... know him?" He carefully asked Shade. Of course the blue fastbiter would know the one who crippled him, given his reaction, but Specter wanted to do this extremely carefully. It certainly was a highly volatile topic, he deduced.

"I do..." Shade answered, despite his recurring memories of the past very calmly. "His name is Bloodhorn... and yes, he took my left arm... and killed my pack. He is the one who destroyed my life... and that of Alba."

"I thought... fastbiters killed your pack?" Specter continued to inquire, still trying to not push it too far.

"And they did, yes. The same ones that murdered my parents... But it was Bloodhorn who led them to us... to Alba and our parents after that... They worked for him. And it was all my own fault... I was such a fool back then... I thought he was a friend... I saw the monster that he really was too late..."

"I'm sorry, Shade... I should not have mentioned it." Specter quickly apologized when he smelled that the blue fastbiter's emotions were upside down by now.

Shade was just as quick to respond, though.

"No, it's alright... It's not your fault... And you know... in the end, I should probably even thank that bastard."

The slight smile on Shade's face just pressed Specter to remain with this topic.

"How so?"

"Because in taking my arm... he kept me and Alba alive..."

Having said that, he threw a mocking glance at Chaser right next to him, to which the bulky two-footer only rolled his left eye and grumbled deeply.

"Am I... on to something here?" Specter asked, even more confused now, as there suddenly was this usual mood of happy banter in the air again.

"What do you say, Sharptooth?" Shade said in his usual tone again. "Want to tell our fuzzball about how we met?"

"Fine..." Chaser answered reluctantly, really not too much looking forward to this. "Just keep your voice low. In contrary to your sister, you really can't sing for shit. Damn ankle-biters and their screeching..."

Specter had to smile at this, as unusual as it was. He had only waited for this day to come, for the first song of this pack. And for some reason, he already had a hunch where this was going. It seemed like this song was about to make Chaser, the mighty Sharptooth, appear quite weak and beatable. Either physically or emotionally. Then again, he always has been. One only needed to know what to do. And he really wanted to hear how Shade had done it, though he also was disappointed that Alba would not contribute to the song.

And Shade was definitely determined to tell him, as he jumped up and placed himself in front of the two big sharpteeth. Before he raised his voice though, he let out a short sigh.

"It's a shame... She really has a beautiful voice... Well then, this is our song about fate."

Having said that, Shade thought about the wording once more and took a deep breath.

 **Two fastbiters, escaped from the jaws of death  
Brother and sister, both having nothing left**

 **Lived their lives, done best as they could  
Driven by revenge, knowing that someday they would**

 **Avenge their kin, taken from them too soon  
But we were only two, it would mean certain doom**

 **Yet on one day, after an important hunt  
Another one came, his past had him shunned**

 **An enemy to us then, he came to steal our kill  
Not knowing that fate would bind us up until**

* * *

 **Two years ago:  
**

Shade kept on glaring at his fresh kill. An adult swimmer. A bigmouth that had almost managed to trample and kill him. Never before had something like this happened to him and he was beginning to question if he was still worthy to call himself a fastbiter.

"Are you alright?"

He turned around to the concerned, calm voice of a female from behind him.

"Yeah..." Came his forced answer, looking at the disfigured stump that was once his left forelimb.

It's been a few cycles of the Night Circle already since he had received this injury and the heavy wound was still not fully healed. It probably never would. He could still feel all of his three fingers on that side, he could still feel them as if they were still there. But they were not. Instead, there was only pain. A scar that didn't feel like it was there but still was. And just a few moments ago, this pain almost caused him to get killed by a swimmer because his brain made him think that he would still be able to attack with his left-hand claws. In reality, however, he had sliced into nothing but air and lost his balance.

Alba knew she would have nothing to say that would comfort her brother, so she placed her paw on his back for some time.

"Come on, let's eat now before..."

Crashing footsteps, coming rapidly closer, made her go silent immediately. Both siblings sniffed the air and they simultaneously jumped a step back from their kill. A scent of an adult, male two-footer lay in the air and it was coming closer with a speed that was simply unreal for such a gigantic predator. The siblings' heartbeats accelerated. They knew full well they should just run away and leave their kill to the much bigger sharptooth, maybe come back later and scavenge what would be left, but that was out of the question. The swimmer before them was quite small, neither of them had eaten in several days and it was very unlikely they would survive the next hunt unharmed. Shade was too unused to fight with his youngest sister and without a left arm, and Alba was too unused to hunt with her oldest brother. She was too unused to actively participate in hunts in general. And besides, this swimmer was _their_ kill, not that two-footer's. Nobody but them had the right to eat it.

But then finally, the dark green two-footer broke through the trees, a piercing look in his red left eye, his right eye firmly shut, probably suggesting that he could kill the two fastbiters with ease. And the fastbiters assumed this to be very true. After all, this sharptooth was the one from legends. This was _the_ Sharptooth. Countless sharpteeth and leaf-eaters of any size had fallen to him.

The siblings now extended the distance from one another, preparing themselves. For what exactly, remained to be seen.

Chaser came to a halt right behind the swimmer's back, raised his foot, placed it on the corpse, obviously pointing out that he would take this kill for himself, and eyed the two fastbiters. In a matter of moments, he analyzed and sized them up. Those were siblings, the male having just reached adulthood and the female being pretty much still a juvenile. Much to his surprise because the female was exactly the same size as the male, if not even slightly bigger. In light of that, she would still grow to be dangerously big for a fastbiter but also looked sick. Her eyes were bloodshot and blue, and her skin was completely white. He had never seen something like this, no experience to rely on, but his instincts told him that she would be pathetically weak and thus no problem for him to rip apart. And for the dark blue male, he didn't even need to consult his primal voice. He was missing his left arm and was just a bit smaller than the usual sharptooth of his kind.

No, these two would be no threat whatsoever to him. No fastbiter would.

"Well, well. I see you ankle-biters killed yourselves something succulent." He spoke up in a deep, menacing voice. "I just hope you're fine with the leftovers."

"We did..." The blue fastbiter answered, already guessing what the two-footer was hinting at. "And you would be best to kill your own... unless you want to join that sap-sucker."

"Shade!" The female immediately exclaimed in horror. "Are you insane?! That's... Sharptooth! We can't..."

"I know who he is." Shade interrupted, indifferent about that fact. "And I couldn't care less. That's our kill, not his."

Of course, Shade had just as swiftly analyzed the two-footer. If he really thought he could kill them with one eye shut, he would show that big idiot otherwise. He just had enough of being pushed around by bigger sharpteeth. This time, he would fight. This time, he would win. And he would demonstrate what it was like messing with a fastbiter like himself.

Chaser let out a shattering laugh, taunting the two fastbiters even further. He liked where this was going. He would restrain himself from eating that strange female, not wanting to catch whatever disease she had in herself, but this cocky male would serve as a nice dessert.

So he lowered his head close to the ground and moved into his combat posture, slamming his massive tail once on the ground in a threatening gesture.

"Bring it on then. I'm dying to have a little snack, too."

"Trust me, you will, tiny-arms!" Shade answered and charged ahead.

Around a threehorn-length away from the two-footer, Shade readied his legs and claws. His tactic here was quite simple, very often had he done this with his now deceased brother and sister. He would make himself the target so that his enemy would fail to defend itself. With this two-footer and his closed right eye, it would be even simpler. All he needed to do was go for his open-eyed side. Then Alba could attack from the blind side and make him pay for this overconfident behavior.

However, one quick glance to his flank made him realize his own mistake.

 _No..._

Chaser smirked, seeing how this reckless blue fastbiter's sister was still unmoving, stunned by his presence. He wanted to wonder how those two had even survived for so long with that kind of coordination but dismissed that for now. First, he would kill this little blue cripple.

 **Chomp!**

His jaws snapped down on the fastbiter's delicate snout, his huge teeth ripping deep wounds into it as he whimpered in pain and tried to free himself from the deadly grasp. But he didn't bite down with all his force. Not even with a fraction of it, to be honest. If he wanted to, he could easily crush his head now but he rather made this ankle-biter aware of his 'unhealthy' attitude. So he began to tilt his head left and right, the fastbiter's head along with it, the blood coming from his snout slowly dripping into his maw. And then he just rammed his head down, this time the whole fastbiter with it, and smacked that weakling onto the ground.

"Is that all you got? Are you that desperate to die, you fool?"

"We'll see about that..." Shade answered to the sharptooth's taunt, shakily rising back on his feet. And another quick glance to his side made him even smile again.

 **Screech! Shluck!**

Alba had finally made her move and jumped at the massive predator, her sickle claws digging deep into his flank, making him let out a shattering roar. This was what Shade had waited for. He charged to the side, changed his course and jumped at the two-footer's blind side. In mid-air, he could already see everything he wanted to see.

 _Just as I thought..._

 **Shluck!**

Now latched on to his target's other flank, he began tearing out piece after piece of dark green skin. The moment Alba struck him, the two-footer had opened his right eyelid again in a twitching blink, and Shade could understand now why he preferred to keep it closed. Because his right eye wasn't working anymore, someone had pierced it with a pointed object and rendered it useless. It was probably even another fastbiter which had managed to do that.

Chaser was shaking his whole body from side to side, lashing out with his tail in the same manner, but he just couldn't shake those two fastbiters off his flanks. Neither could he reach them with his teeth or tiny forelimbs. But he would not go down like this. This blue fastbiter had already shown that he apparently looked after his sister. And that was the weakness which would now get him killed.

He leaned over to where the female fastbiter was situated, making her jump off as she feared that he would fall on her.

 _Too easy..._

 **Smack!**

And after that, he slapped her head with his tail, instantly knocking her out. Just as instantly, the pain on his blind side stopped as the blue fastbiter jumped off and sprinted over to his prone sister.

 _Just as I thought..._

Chaser walked over to the two fastbiters, great amounts of blood emerging from both his flanks, though it was easy for him to dismiss that and nowhere near enough to kill him. Still, he found that those two had done quite well. For ankle-biters at least. Nonetheless, he wanted to kill at least this blue male for his insanely cocky attitude. It would be extremely easy, the male fastbiter didn't even pay him any attention no more while trying to wake up his sister.

However, just as he wanted to end it, he felt something holding him back. He commanded his body to kill, but it did not obey him. And that was when he thought about that blue fastbiter's missing arm. He didn't know where that sudden thought had come from but it was there, and it somehow made sense to heed it. He tilted his head and stretched out his own forelimb, the right one, and eyed the scars of the long since healed wounds there. The wounds his very own brother had inflicted on it so many years ago when he tried to rip it off in such a cowardly fashion.

 _Could it... really be?_

"Tell me..." Chaser spoke up again, his deep voice making the blue fastbiter flinch and jump around to him. Her gazes crossed for quite a few moments before he nodded at his point of interest. "Who did that to you?"

"A sharptooth who killed everyone I knew. He lied to me, took everything I had from me." Came the firm and dead serious answer, blood still running down from the fastbiter's snout. "A sharptooth I want dead."

"Hmm. You have to tell me about him... Because I think we might have something in common."

* * *

 **The present:**

 **Three sharpteeth, u** **nited by fate  
Not resting until things set straight**

To finish his song, Shade took a short, respectful bow, actually more out of jest, and moved a step back. Specter still had quite a surprised look on his face but it didn't take him long before making a remark.

"I guess... Chaser really was right."

"To keep me alive?" The blue fastbiter asked, again in jest.

"No... That you can't sing for shit." Specter finished his point with a smirk.

"Never claimed otherwise." Shade said and shrugged once. Following that, he went over to Specter, patting the big fastbiter on his back twice. "Alright, I'll go to sleep now. Chaser wants to have another word with you. See you next morning, fuzzball."

"Yeah, good night, Shade." Specter responded, nudged him in the side and watched the blue fastbiter trot away until he disappeared in the dark. Then he turned his attention back to Chaser. "Huh... 'Just that we almost killed him for it, back then'. Didn't sound like that in the song, to be honest."

"He likes to alter the truth a little bit." Chaser only commented again.

"I guess... So, what do you need from me?"

"Another answer." Was the simple reply. "You still haven't told me how Seeker managed to kill my father."

"That's because he didn't kill him. Neither of his pack did."

This took Chaser aback and surprise visibly filled his eye.

"How did he die then?"

"He died like he lived. One of his fastbiters, the most messed up one, the one he had tormented the most, betrayed him right at the end and stabbed him in the back with a poisoned pointed stick. In other words... He died a very, very painful death, if that's what you want to hear. And so did that fastbiter in the end. That's all I heard from Seeker."

Chaser chuckled lightly. Would the topic concern anyone but Red Claw, Specter would've frowned at that cold reaction. However, it did not. So he didn't either, and kept a neutral face.

"Good. That's all for today. Get yourself some rest now."

"Will do." Specter said, jumped up and bowed his head shortly. "Good night, sir."

"Good night, fuzzball." Chaser concluded this discussion, but Specter had already disappeared in the dark, too.

* * *

 **And there we go. Yet another proof I just can't keep my word. But I really wanted to finish this chapter before going on a hiatus for most of this month.  
**

 **So, I really hope you've enjoyed this installment, please let me know your thoughts on this as they are all highly appreciated, and as always:**

 **Take care, and until next time!**


	20. Chapter 19: Understanding

**Chapter 19: Understanding**

 ** _"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." - C.G. Jung  
_**

The brightly illuminated Night Circle in the sky embraced everything on the ground and bathed it in cold, white lighting. One creature down there was especially affected by this, its white skin and blue eyes rejecting to take in the cold light but rather reflecting it, thus even amplifying the effect. And that creature had its eyes firmly planted on another one of its kind, a creature which in the exact opposite way basically absorbed the light to turn it into nothing but darkness.

Alba has eyed Specter for quite some time already, watched how the golden, decorative crest feathers running along from his head to tail shifted back and forth in this windy night. She would've liked going to sleep herself now but the black fastbiter's massive body prevented her from doing so, as he lay quite awkwardly on his side and consumed almost all of the little space beneath the sheltering rock. What was left was occupied by Shade.

She gritted her teeth in annoyance but immediately stopped doing this as a light cracking sound emerged from her mouth and blood began running down her jaw. That was something she completely dismissed, however. There were other things on her mind, and all of them had to do with the same sharptooth who denied her her rightful slumber in comfort with his oversized form.

She wanted to cringe at how she had behaved around him so far. She didn't even know why she'd been acting like this, but what she did know was that she almost killed a member of her very own pack. Not only would she have gone against the clear orders from her trusted leader but also lost a potential friend and companion, at the very least another set of claws and teeth to help in achieving the pack's combined goal. Indeed, had Shade not intervened at the very last moment, she would've inadvertently become one of the same monsters from her sleep stories. She would've taken the life from a fastbiter she thought reminded her of herself in her younger days. Which was probably also why she wanted to see him leave. She hated everything that reminded her of her past life, before Shade had taken care of her. But she hated herself just as much for her behavior. Yes, she owed the black fastbiter absolutely nothing, but she knew how hard he tried to make her accept him. The latest gesture was that he had actually left some of his own share of swimmer flesh for her to eat, which was blatantly obvious to see on the carcass because Specter's bite marks were unusually large for a fastbiter. The gestures before that were just as friendly and caring, and the only thing she had come up with to reciprocate was that she tried to rip his throat open after a harmless training fight, in which she had easily beaten him and seen him even smile at his own defeat. Something not many sharpteeth would do. In fact, no normal sharptooth would. She wanted to go back and change that, help him back up on his feet and give him another chance, but she knew just as well that this would not be possible.

Never before in her life had she been this conflicted. She wanted this feathered fastbiter to just disappear, wanted him to fade back into the fog out of which he had emerged, but at the same time she did not. She wanted to stay away from him, wanted him to stay away from her, but at the same time she did not. She wanted to really get to know him and hear about how he's actually managed to survive until adulthood without any siblings or parents to support him and yet still didn't know how to defend himself, but at the same time she did not. It was beyond hard for her to control the deep emotions of fear, terror and all those horrible images which she connected to him.

And that was why she was so angry with herself. This black fuzzball had simply nothing in common with those fastbiters from her past, despite the recurring memories at his sight. He smelled different and looked different than them. He was of her own kind of fastbiter, this was a plain fact. He had the same muscular body she had, albeit much bigger in size, the same long tail and arms, and the same few dangerous teeth showing, even with a shut mouth. All of which the other fastbiters did not have. Their bodies were slender, still big but with a shorter tail and slightly shorter arms, their heads were a bit smaller with their teeth all hidden inside their mouths, and their eyes varied in color instead of having the usual yellow hue of her kind, something that actually made Alba herself with her blue eyes resemble them quite closely in that regard. The only thing Specter and those monsters shared were their feathers, and even those noticeably differed from another. Most obviously, the sharpteeth she really wanted dead did not possess those very prominent crest feathers which Specter carried on his head, neck, back and top of his tail. Also, those fastbiters were quite colorful, their feathers in a wide variety of hues, unlike Specter, who only had one real color to show, which was a strange tone of gold.

And not only that. Over the past few days, she has observed him whenever there was a chance. She has watched his every move, every gesture, every sprint, every strike and overall behavior. All of which combined could only lead her to one conclusion. A truly horrifying one to her.

Specter was unlike anyone she had ever seen, heard of or imagined. Not on the outside, judging his plain looks, however, but on the inside. For the life of her, she just could not properly assess him like she had always been able to with any other of the few fastbiters she met in her life. While walking, for example, for whatever reason, even when not on a hunt, he always moved around in quite a graceful fashion, always keeping his movement sounds as low as possible which made him pretty much silent in spite of his huge and heavy body, and yet there was something about his way of moving that seemed rather odd and unfitting, something Alba couldn't point out but still noticed. Then there was this strange behavior with the longclaw eggs, as if he had never held an egg in his claws or even seen one. Then there was him seemingly 'talking' to leaf-eaters, dinosaurs too stupid to have a complex language like the intelligent sharpteeth had, twice already had this happened. Then there was this deep curiosity in his piercing yellow eyes, always excitedly looking at the most basic little creatures, even Chaser, Shade and Alba themselves, as if he had never seen a dinosaur or any of the other critters around in his life. Thinking about this, she even remembered seeing Specter play around with the weapons of his own body quite often, as if he was amazed by looking like fastbiter just did. Though, admittedly, it was probably because he simply didn't look like a 'normal' fastbiter such as herself or her brother. And also, there was a certain brutality and weird clumsiness in his kills but just as much precision, mercy, sorrow and care, as if he somehow improvised when killing, no clear pattern in mind, and yet still 'felt' for his food and tried to make death as quick as possible, even closing his victims' eyelids for some obscure reason. There was so much more to name that it would consume the whole night to do so.

So Alba decided not to do that and instead finally do what she had planned on doing in the first place. She went over to Specter's head, lowered herself to the ground and slowly opened her jaws, revealing most of her perfectly aligned, slightly bloody and razor-sharp teeth. She would make this very quick, nobody would ever notice.

At least so she thought. Because suddenly, a pair of big, yellow eyes stared right back at her. She jumped back in surprise and snapped her jaws closed again, once more a cracking sound coming from between her teeth, even more crimson fluid running down her muzzle.

"Alba...?" Specter carefully asked with a soft growl, not wanting to wake up Shade, slowly raising his head. "What are you doing? Is... something wrong?"

Of course he knew something was wrong. He could smell blood, almost felt Alba's stare resting on him for minutes before opening his eyes and she had come dangerously close to him with her teeth. He already feared for the worst, feared that she had actually planned to kill him in his sleep. But then he noticed that she was holding something in her mouth, where the scent of blood was coming from.

Slowly, Specter rolled over on his feet, rose to his full height and walked up to the albino fastbiter, towering above her. She still refused to answer him, kept on giving him an unreadable look. Her blue-eyed gaze mixed with his yellow-eyed one for another moment, but then she looked away from him, opened her mouth and placed what she had carried around until now in her hands, reaching them out to the male fastbiter.

Specter tried to keep calm and reserved at this gesture, yet couldn't help but feel massively surprised and overwhelmed. What Alba was holding in her claws and offering to him was a big, fuzzy animal with four legs and membranes between them, slightly disfigured by her sharp teeth with its 'wings' shredded and body pierced at multiple places, but still very much edible.

 _A prehistoric flying squirrel... Uhm... Volet... Volico... Oh, screw these names! Volaticotherium. That's it... But why would she...?  
_

Tilting his head, he began to realize why, though he had never expected this to happen so soon. In fact, he had never expected this to happen at all. Ever.

 _An... apology?_

Determined to avoid looking hesitant and weird again, Specter quickly reached out with his own, much bigger hands and took over the little snack, to which Alba retracted her forelimbs again while still looking away from him. But he dismissed that for now. Actually, he was quite in awe that she had gone through so much trouble to hunt this offering for him. After all, this was basically a much faster, flying version of those dastardly rodents, 'ground fuzzies'. He remembered how Littlefoot, Spike, Taunt and Cera had sometimes tried to teach him how to hunt those little pests, but he always failed horribly in doing so. While his reflexes were insanely fast, Specter completely lacked the sensitivity he needed to have to effectively kill such small critters, often resulting in him squashing them under his feet or completely ripping them to shreds with his claws, thus rendering them even more unsuitable to eat than they were in the first place, given his size. It would've taken a whole colony of rodents to keep him fed for a day. So he had quickly given up on this task, early on lost his wish to taste them once and refused to eat those that the others had managed to kill, back then. Thinking about this, he also remembered how especially Cera seemed to have had quite a lot of fun tearing the rodents apart, which probably had something to do with one of them biting her in the past. Regardless of that, though, hunting a flying version of those creatures was completely out of his league, so he was more than impressed with the big female in front of him.

To underline that, Specter let out a series of light, soft growls in a deep pitch. These sounds did not have a clear meaning, they could not be translated into another language like most others could, but it was a direct and unquestionable way of expressing one's profound gratitude, something only a predator was capable of understanding.

However, even though he wanted to unanimously accept this offering, it brought up some troubling thoughts with it. Because what he was holding in his claws belonged to the very same clade of animals he himself had belonged to for over 20 years. That Volaticotherium was a mammal, just like a human. It were strange thoughts to heed, they didn't even really make sense for the most part, but he couldn't find a way around it. Sure enough, he has always eaten other mammals, but not in this time and especially not since being a Utahraptor who belonged to the order of the Saurischia and clade of the Eudromaeosauria. In simpler terms, since being a prehistoric bird of prey, a 'raptor', a carnivorous dinosaur. Then again, he had often consumed the meat or eggs of chickens in his past life, which were basically, and quite sadly, the distant 'descendants' of his new species. So now it seemed like it was time for him to 'settle the score' by eating an 'ancestor' of one of his old. It was so ironic that he found it to be quite funny, and he had to smile widely for a moment.

Only when he took another step forwards, Alba restored eye contact. Specter figured that she most likely had massive problems with this situation, basically forcing herself into submission in front of the pack's newcomer and by far the weakest link in the chain, but also deduced that it would be selfish to accept her gift like that and eat it all by himself. Shade's friendly words on that matter echoed in his mind and pressed him to act accordingly.

He grabbed each of the critter's ends with his hands, twisting them in opposing ways and pulled, to which slightly disgusting sounds of ripping flesh and cracking bones followed, as he easily teared the dead mammal in half. Following that, he reached out again with his left forelimb and offered Alba the upper part of the body where the more nutritious parts like the small brain of this creature were situated. The neutral look on her face did not change but Specter could've sworn seeing Alba's bloodshot, blue eyes gleam in surprise, deep happiness and delight for a second, as if she was taken aback and jumping for joy at the same time on the inside.

In the end, she only nodded at this, took her share and began delicately gnawing away the little meat that was on the mammal. Specter on the other hand simply threw his part of the critter into the air, intending to keep his highly important eye-muzzle coordination fresh, chomped down on it, his teeth crushing most of the bones, and swallowed it whole.

 _Sharing is caring. Hmm... Tastes quite good. Not good enough to be worth the hassle hunting one of these, though..._

Specter waited for another while until Alba was finished with eating. When she was, an awkward silence embraced both of them. None of them knew what to say but both wanted to say something. Much to Specter's surprise, it was actually Alba who broke the silence.

"Did... you really mean it? Was it really the truth what you said to me?" She asked in an, to Specter at least, unfamiliar tone of insecureness in her otherwise so firm, indifferent and slightly cold voice.

Specter needed a moment to think about what he could've said to her, but soon realized that he had only talked to her once in multiple days, in the night when Chaser took him in.

"You mean... when...?" He inquired, nodding at the little overhang a few meters away from them.

"Yeah..." Came the answer.

"Then yes, it was." Specter responded firmly. "Nothing but the truth. Why should I have lied?"

The scent of that truth radiated from him, pure, not mixed with sorrow and regret anymore, and it was stronger than ever. Alba didn't even question it this time. Silence embraced the two fastbiters yet again, until Specter moved forwards, past Alba, his golden tail feathers gliding along her flank, and laid down on his haunches on his favorite place. Alba stood stunned in her tracks, but soon turned around and sat down right next to his hulking form on the overhang.

"How do you know all these things? I mean... like... How can you possibly know what the other side of the Night Circle looks like?"

It was just now Specter noticed both of them were looking up at the moon, earth's natural satellite that never dared to show its 'ugly' face, only presenting the side everyone on this planet was used to and wanted to see for billions of years. Ever since life existed, the moon looked like this. And even 65 million years later, it would still look the same. He had seen it with his own eyes, at that time green ones, after all.

"I know about a lot of things... most of them useless now." He gave his unhappy response. "If you're really interested, I'll gladly tell you about all those things one day... but until then, until all of this is over, I would like to keep them to myself. I've said this so often before in my life but... trust me, it's probably better this way."

Alba gave a disappointed nod. Still, she found it was good that she had asked this because Specter already mentioned the next thing she was far more interested in.

"And why did you agree to fight with us? Why... are you willing to risk your life for us three sharpteeth? You said you already belong to a pack, so what about them?"

"That's... difficult to explain..." Specter said and let out a sigh. "You see, Chaser and my last pack are connected in more ways than you can possibly imagine. He would never recognize them, who they really are, but they would instantly recognize him... and bad, bad things would happen, I'm sure of that. I don't want this. Thing is, I left them for my incredibly selfish reasons. I left the pack of sharpteeth who found me and took me in, kept me alive, just like that... Without a word, I abandoned them, never to return... and I ruined everything I've set out to do... It was a failure right from the start but I was too stupid to see that... I started doing things I was never supposed to do, just so I could complete my mission... They will probably kill me if they find out what I have done... Still, they're my friends and my family. They always will be. And I want to return to them, someday... should I ever find the way back. But, again, until then, this here is my pack. You, Shade and Chaser. Besides, no matter if your problems should not concern me... those sharpteeth you're fighting against deserve to die. It is my very own wish to help you in killing every single one of them. Whatever they're trying to do, it must be stopped. What else is left for me now? But after that, I want to return to my old home..."

Like before, Alba could only nod at this. However, Specter decided to add an afterthought.

"I just hope you've not forgotten about me, Seeker..."

It was muttered to himself and never intended for Alba to hear, but after looking back at her and seeing her widely opened eyes, he realized that he maybe should've kept that addition hidden inside his mind.

 _It sure is hard keeping my voice low, now that I'm such a big raptor..._ He quickly noted to himself.

"You belong to... Seeker's pack?" Alba asked, almost in shock.

Of course, every sharptooth had heard the stories about the legendary Seeker and his mixed pack of sharpteeth at some point over the past cold times. Apparently, this pack even had a two-footer of its own and a sharptooth flyer. More importantly, however, most fastbiters of Seeker's pack, five in numbers including Seeker himself, were supposed to look a lot different from any other. There were obviously numerous versions of the stories, each one of them telling a different way of how and where these sharpteeth had defeated the unbeatable Red Claw and how exactly they looked like. Some even claimed that Seeker's pack was invincible, that their leader survived being stabbed in his chest unharmed. She had always believed most parts of those stories to be a bunch of spiketail dung, but now it seemed like Alba finally had proof of at least their appearances. Because the proof was sitting right next to her.

"I hope I still do... But yes, in the essence, that's how it is." Specter quickly answered, just as quickly realizing that Alba should be able to understand the little predicament here when it came to Chaser's involvement, though he was surprised to hear that the two-footer had apparently not told the two siblings about this. And when he wouldn't even tell them such a trivial thing, Specter figured that most of his secrets were probably quite safe with him. Maybe Chaser's indifference really was a virtue, Specter mused. "And Chaser knows that, too. It's probably the only reason he's keeping me alive for now, at least until we're done with this. But I still know many more things about him which he doesn't. And it's those things I'm really worried about... Anyway, that's not important right now. I just want you to know that I'm not your enemy, and that I will do my best to help you."

Having said that, no more words should be exchanged. As soon as Specter noticed after a while that Alba presumably saw it the same way, he gently nudged her side, nodded towards their sleeping spots, and stood up along with her. Before they started moving those few steps back, they looked in each other's eyes for another moment, exchanging a plethora of different emotions via their different-colored oculi. Specter somehow wanted to conclude this important talk by giving her a nuzzle, show her that he would take care of her, should she ever need him or just feel the desire to talk, no matter how she had treated and what she had almost done to him, but quickly decided against it. Not only did he want to keep a safe emotional distance from females from now on, plainly to avoid being tempted to get a little bit too close in the end, but it would also probably ruin this fresh 'truce' between her and him, maybe even upset her brother.

Thinking about this rather special topic, namely his contact with female Utahraptors, he noticed something about his new way of life which heavily annoyed him. Because even though he didn't heed any thoughts beyond friendship with females on his own, this did not mean that a certain part of his mind wouldn't push him to 'explore' certain 'possibilities' by itself, regardless of a certain female's special appearance.

 _ _At least I arrived in this time after what sounded like mating season... Thank goodness for that! Fucking instincts... literally._ Besides... We're not intelligent mammals. We're intelligent birds, basically. Doing 'it' would last a few seconds and not even be fun... And she's so much smaller and lighter than me, so how would I even...? Eww! No! Damn dirty mind..._

But, since he had a healthy extent of self-control, he pushed the upcoming images aside, a bit disgusted with himself, stayed passive and let the female take point to follow after her to the sheltering rock.

Specter watched how Alba curled herself up next to Shade, on her usual spot which he had already 'preheated' until a few minutes ago, and proceeded to lie down in front of the two siblings, his huge body offering both of them some more warmth and quite extensive shielding from the strong wind. He was just glad to be useful with his presence and he didn't even really feel the cold blow in the first place, his dense feathering keeping him warm and protected regardless.

The next weeks or months would be quite rough, this much he could anticipate, but he has committed to this cause and was determined to finish it. Together with his three companions. What else was left for him to do in this primitive world now, when his real pack probably thought him to be dead, he asked himself once more.

Soon after, he finally began falling into a calm and peaceful sleep.

* * *

 **One month later:**

"So that place really exists?"

Specter didn't answer outright. First, he finished his pattern of phantom attacks up on the moving platform below him, perfectly maintaining his balance. Only then he opened both of his eyes and jumped off the old clubtail, walking besides the elder now.

 **"It does. Seen it with my own eyes, smelled it with my own nose, heard it with my own ears. You will find an endless amount of green food in there, all sorts of leaf-eaters, many other clubtails and you will never have to worry too much about... well... us sharpteeth bothering you."**

"Sounds like a boring way to live, if you ask me... And how come a sharptooth like you was in there?"

 **"Maybe it's boring but you will definitely stay alive. Can't say the same for these lands here. And I was allowed to stay there for a while for the same reason I'm even telling you about it. I hate to say this about myself but I'm kind of... special. Not only for a sharptooth."**

"That you are, definitely." The clubtail said and let out a chuckle, followed by a sigh as he remembered all of his past life. "Maybe even a fastbiter can actually give me a good advice. It sure seems like a nice, reasonable place to spend my remaining seasons... So, where is it? The stories tell many things about the Great Valley but never have I heard..."

 **Roar!**

The distant, loud roar of a two-footer interrupted him and the two dinosaurs stopped their movement.

 **"That's my leader."** Specter explained. **"We've come quite close to my pack's territory. So if you're willing to accept another advice, you'd be best to stay away from here. I don't know if he respects you as much as I do."**

"I would make him respect me." Came the simple answer, still expressed in a bit of jest, however.

 **"I'm sure you would, but I would hold it against you."** Specter responded with a smirk and scanned the skies of this afternoon for a moment, trying to remember how he had explained this to Shade when he told the blue fastbiter a bit about the magnificent Great Valley once. **"I would lead you to the valley but I have to stay with my pack. All I can offer is trying to explain roughly where it is... I know your eyes are definitely not what they used to be and to be honest, I don't know the way there from here but... I definitely know that the main entrance is in the direction where the Bright Circle never shines. If you follow the Bright Circle's orange light when it sets, you should reach a bunch of mountains... and probably get to see many bones of dead leaf-eaters and sharpteeth who died when... a Smoking Mountain spat fire. Anyway, somewhere behind those huge mountains is the valley, but I can't say in which direction you should go from there. Maybe... Maybe you should try following the Bright Circle when it is at the highest point in the sky and stay near those mountains. It should make it easier for you to see what you still can see. Then go towards where the light at day never shines, which would be the tricky part, and then towards where it shines on each morning again. Maybe you can even find someone on the way who would tell you some more details. But I can't give you my word on that... For all I know, I could send you right into barren lands with a whole bunch of sharptooth territories. And the way will probably be very long, too."  
**

"I see..." The clubtail said and sighed once more, this time out of sadness. "Then I will probably not see it in my life anymore. I don't think I can handle a journey such as this at my age. Still... thank you for telling me a bit about the valley. Ever since hearing of it when I was still a youngling, I wanted to see it once, at least hear that a place such as this really exists. You certainly made an old clubtail very happy. I can't believe that I would ever say this to a sharptooth but... You are a good guy, and I owe you."

 **"Don't mention it. You owe me nothing."** Specter answered humbly. **"In my eyes, you are just as special as I am. You might not want to hear this, and I don't have the right to even speak about it this way, but I want to be straight with you. I believe that not every leaf-eater is worthy of living there. Us sharpteeth might be evil, murdering monsters to most, but we're only killing other dinosaurs because we have to eat. Just as you kill sharpteeth to defend yourself. But I have seen their bones... So many of us died by starvation, so many of us must've had to eat their own packmates or maybe even siblings because all the leaf-eaters in some parts of the lands traveled towards the valley to be safe from us... And I cannot blame them. I would do the same. Still... It's just... What I'm trying to say is... I think you are among the few leaf-eaters I know who are more than worthy of living a peaceful life there."  
**

"I don't think it is a matter of worth. It is simply the Circle of Life we all follow. There will always be dinosaurs who try to run away from their fate, but I have always accepted it. And I see no reason to hate your kind, though I do not approve of what you must do to stay alive. As long as you don't harm me, I am fine with a sharptooth giving me some company. Maybe that is why I have lived for so long."

 **"Or maybe it is because you're a huge clubtail which any sane sharptooth stays away from."** Specter retorted with another grin on his face. **"Anyway, I have to go now or Chaser will bite my tail off. Thanks again for letting me train on you for the tenth time already. I don't know if I'll have the chance to come by from now on, but stay safe out here, wherever you're going. After all, I can't train on a dead clubtail."**

"I see some of your blue friend's cheekiness has already carried over to you. I'm just glad he cannot speak to me, too." The elder returned the fastbiter's banter. "Well, off with you then! It sounded like you should not keep your leader waiting."

 **"Don't worry, I won't. See you around, Magno!"**

"Farewell, Specter."

Having said that, the old clubtail watched the big fastbiter giving him one last nod before exploding into a sprint, soon disappearing out of his blurred sight. Subsequent to this, Magno looked up at the sky. He could not see much else but the Bright Circle's yellow light, shining down on his plated back from high up in the sky, so he decided to rest now and wait for it to turn orange. Then, he would make up his mind.

* * *

After only a few minutes of sprinting, Specter stopped in front of his leader, who was already impatiently waiting for him.

"Sir." Specter reported. "You called for me?"

"Did you finish 'training' with that old sap-sucker?" Came Chaser's usual, mocking response. However, there was no real indifference in his voice this time.

"I did." Specter answered, always keeping a cool head at most of his leader's behavior by now. "And it helped me improve a lot. This time, he couldn't even get close to me with his tail, and I'm getting better at keeping my balance."

"Good. In that case, I want you to come along on a hunt. I could need your help in killing something."

"What... kind of target are we talking about?" He carefully inquired, noticing this strange tone in Chaser's voice. It was one of those tones which implied that firstly, it would not be an easy task, and secondly, it would very likely be a highly dangerous one.

"You will see." Chaser stated, carrying one of those dirty smirks on his face. "Let's just say I also want to observe how you hold up against something bigger than yourself."

 _Like a longneck or a threehorn or what? You know I'm able to hunt... So what else would you want me to kill?_ Specter retorted in his mind, with a bit of concern and quite honestly also some fear. But since he was beginning to feel rather confident with himself over the past weeks, having had no problems on any of the daily hunts so far, he agreed to the two-footer's 'offer', nodded in affirmation and joined his side to follow after him. Why would he be afraid in the first place? If Chaser wanted him dead, he would've already done it himself. No, the big sharptooth was his leader and for now, he would follow him and his orders.

* * *

As the two sharpteeth were moving farther northwards with every step, Specter began to feel the soft and moist soil below his feet slightly sinking in. An effect that Chaser definitely had on the ground, his weight of around seven tons causing him to leave deep, three-toed footprints, funnily enough also dampening his movement sounds by a lot.

 _Hmm... Looks like we're heading into a swampland. I wonder what he wants me to do here..._

This should quite soon become apparent to him. The fastbiter and the two-footer came to a halt around 50 meters away from the actual swamp, a massive lake with many trees standing in it and pretty much everything from the plants, over the trees and to the ground overgrown with moss, the whole scenery plunged into dark green colors.

Specter sat down on the soft moss when Chaser did the same, both of them behind cover of some fallen tree trunks, and used the few moments of silence to look at the massive Tyrannosaurus' blind side. While doing this, he couldn't hold back an amused grin.

 _Huh... Look at you, Chaser. That's some natural camouflage you're having right there. Why not make this your territory? You would easily be the apex predator here... I mean, you're already at our home... Well, that is of course unless...  
_

For just a second, he interrupted his thoughts as an idea popped up inside his mind, a little hunch as to why not even the sharptooth formerly known as _the_ Sharptooth would want to claim these lands for himself and why he had brought him here, but he dismissed that just as quickly. The sole reason must've been that the few leaf-eater herds they had encountered on their trip were quite small, both in numbers and anatomic sizes of the individual dinosaurs.

"Why are we here?" He finally asked. "Do you want me to kill one of those trees? Or climb on one and kill a flyer at the top? I always was a good climber, and now I even have some nice claws on my feet I can use, but I don't see how this would..."

"Watch." Chaser stated firmly, ignoring Specter's attempt to be funny, and used his right forelimb to point at the still water.

Specter followed the imaginary line from Chaser's two clawed fingers to the lake. At first glance, he saw absolutely nothing of interest. Neither did he at the second. But then, at the third, he saw movement on the surface. He followed the ripples and soon laid eyes on something. Only two things were visible on the surface, actually. One of them was some sort of knob with two nostrils on it and the other, which was almost a meter away from the first, was a pair of reptilian eyes. And both of those things belonged to the same, gargantuan creature that had the rest of its body hidden underwater.

"I see you've found it." Chaser noted in a bit of amusement himself now. Even though he could not actually see Specter's stare of horror with his blind eye on the right, he was easily able to pick up the big fastbiter's scents of fear and the faint sounds of his two sickle claws rapidly tapping on the mossy ground in nervousness.

 _A bulla... and such a massive snout... like a way bigger gharial... That is... a Sarcosuchus!_ Specter gave the underwater beast its proper name in his thoughts, stilly utterly horrified to the core now that he began to understand why Chaser wanted to bring him here.

"No fucking way!" He then made clear aloud to the two-footer before he could state the obvious. "Are you actually mad? I am not going to let myself eaten by that thing! Besides, why would I want to kill a stupid bellydragger?"

Chaser, completely unfazed, had already expected this reaction, so he kept as calm as ever. More so, after sniffing the air once, and in unison seeing the gigantic bellydragger's two visible body parts disappear in the water again, an idea crossed his mind.

 _Hmm... Maybe he just needs a little 'incentive'._

"Alright, fine." He said in an unusually accepting tone. "If that's what you want, we will just wait and see."

"Wait for and see what?" Specter asked, still in anger that Chaser had actually planned on letting him fight against an adult Sarcosuchus, a crocodilian carnivore able to kill even an adolescent Tyrannosaurus like Chomper without too much trouble.

But immediately after, he sniffed the air, too, and now felt far more disgusting emotions building up inside of him. Because these emotions didn't concern his own life anymore. To put it in numbers, his emotions now concerned six lives. Before he had time to think about what to do and how to react now, those six lives moved into his field of view. Two tiny adult fastbiters, barely above 50cm tall, and their four children which were even smaller, two of which on each adult's back. And all six of them were happily closing in on the water where the reptilian predator had submerged moments before.

 _A Velociraptor family... Two adults and their four children... Did they not see...? Oh please... no... Run, you idiots... Run!  
_

Specter already took a deep breath, preparing himself to let out a terrifying screech to scare the little fastbiters away from the water, but just as he tried to open his mouth, an immense amount of weight from above slammed his head onto one of the tree trunks and kept his jaws closed. Out of instinct, he tried to jump up but couldn't do that either. Suddenly, his whole body was restrained and he couldn't even move a single, useful muscle.

The reason for this was because Chaser completely immobilized him by doing almost exactly the same thing Specter had done to Shade after one of their training fights. The two-footer used one of his forelimbs' paws to shut Specter up while holding him in place with the rest of his body, basically sitting on top of him, even using his tail to prevent the fastbiter below him from making any alarming sounds with his own.

"We will wait and see." He growled softly into Specter's sensitive ear. "This is for what. You wanted it this way. Now watch."

Specter couldn't be any less interested in what he apparently wanted, so he still tried to vocalize a warning. But all that emerged from his shut mouth were muffled whimpering and faint growls, his eyes still wide in despair and horror as the fastbiter family now stopped right in front of the water for a drink, the children jumping off their parents' backs and play fighting with each other for a while. Without him being allowed to warn them, the small sharpteeth would soon be ripped to shreds by a set of 132 huge teeth with a bite force of a good ten tons behind them. But their deaths would not be quick ones. He knew how brutal crocodilians were when killing, even when going after such small creatures and even for some of his own standards. That sharptooth in the water would either drown or completely dismember the small fastbiters. He could already see some ripples on the surface again. It would be a matter of seconds now. It would be a bloodbath.

 **Roar!**

And Chaser had realized that, too, so he let out a shattering roar to which all the little fastbiters flinched in shock, their children quickly jumping on their parents' backs again. And then the whole family sprinted away from the water in panic, the ripples on it dispersed and the movement stopped.

Only now, Specter felt Chaser letting off of him and heard him sitting down on the ground to his right side. Still breathing heavily and with an unhealthily high heartbeat, he stared at the two-footer's left side and into his crimson eye now, unable to comprehend why he had suddenly decided to warn the little raptors. Unable to comprehend why he had prevented him from doing it himself then. Unable to comprehend anything, really.

"Why...?" He tried to ask for some of this 'anything' under his heavy panting.

"Because you refuse and hesitate." Chaser cut him off. "You always do. Just like with that female longneck. And it is really starting to annoy me."

"But... I..." Specter immediately tried to defend himself, but Chaser wouldn't let him.

"Let me ask you something. When you spoke to that longneck, has she told you anything of significance you didn't find out later? Has she told you anything that justified letting her suffer from her injuries any longer for your pointless talk?"

Specter looked away from him and shook his head ashamedly. Although he wanted to believe that he made Arga's death a 'peaceful' one for her, he couldn't deny the fact that he had also let her suffer for quite some more time before ending her life. And in the end, death would always remain death. No matter if it'd be a 'happy', 'angry', 'sad' or 'peaceful' one. If anything, realistically speaking, he had only made it easier for himself to take her life by getting her to offer it to him. Which, being quite honest with himself, in retrospect almost made him hate his own guts.

"That's what I thought." Chaser affirmed Specter's gesture. "Do you honestly believe I would order you to kill for no reason? I never let my victims suffer, and I hate to see others doing it. This is one of the many things my father has taught me but ultimately lost on his own path and died for it like a pathetic weakling. I, however, never did. No matter how many I've killed. No matter how many times I've not killed for food."

Specter needed a while to digest all of Chaser's harsh, stern words, only afterwards able to speak up in a shaky voice.

"I'm sorry... I... I understand. But... why would you want to kill that bellydragger then?"

"You're horrible at controlling your scents." Chaser commented, much to the confusion of Specter who raised his head again and gave him an asking look now. "Some time after what happened to me and my brother at the watering hole, yes, this used to be my territory for quite a few seasons, way before I found Shade and Alba. This lake is the only big source of water around, so back then, the leaf-eater herds were plenty and there used to be all kinds of flyers, half-teeth and fastbiters living here. Those little biters from just now, a few bigger ones, your own kind and some others. I mostly left them to themselves. They hunted their food and I mostly hunted my own. Me being here was reason enough for bigger sharpteeth not to come to this place and in return, those ankle-biters didn't bother me. A young fastbiter called Stalker and his pack even wanted to work together with me sometimes to keep me around. In the end though, I left, and soon as I was gone, another big sharptooth came and took my place. And now only a few of those little biters are left. Everyone else either gave up on this place or, by far the most, ended up in _there_."

Having said that, the two-footer pointed at the lake once more. Specter's look of surprise soon turned into raw anger after hearing this, and not only because he coincidentally knew what ultimately happened to Stalker and his pack after they had been forced to leave. The true culprit was obviously a different one in that case, although it was apparently this crocodile in the swamp which had driven the fastbiters out of their home and to someone like Thrasher in the first place.

It was rather because he never liked crocodiles, has always despised that those simpletons managed to survive the extinction event instead of some majestic longnecks or even highly lethal raptors such as himself, though had such dinosaurs survived, he would probably not have existed. While those reptilians' sheer effectiveness as killers was undeniable, he has always found them to be way too brutal and stupid. Yet it was not because of this standpoint why his view on them has changed from dislike to hatred, now that he was actively being confronted with one of them. Being a living dinosaur now, those creatures were his natural enemies. Not adversaries, like herbivores or some bigger carnivorous dinosaurs were, but enemies. Nothing more and nothing less. Whether it would be leaf-eater, half-tooth or sharptooth, in bellydraggers, every dinosaur had a common enemy. And now that he thought about it, he truly deserved to experience that circumstance. After all, it was his very own wish to have natural enemies to fear and fight. His wish has been granted. Crocodiles, when they were fed up with fish, also quite happily hunted dinosaurs. All of them. The biggest ones like that Sarcosuchus made no exceptions with dinosaurs like him or Chaser whatsoever. And he felt rather good, knowing that the two of them would turn the tables on this reptile now. Some part of him even wanted to settle the score in the name of all those dead raptors and other creatures from this swamp. Another part of him, namely what he knew as simple Darwinist calculus, pressed him to kill the Sarco for being a Sarco. And he was fine with that, too.

So, after sorting out his thoughts, he raised his voice again.

"Fine, I'll kill that bellydragger... But I'm a fastbiter. I cannot take down such a big one, not even with my killing claws or if you would help me by holding it in place or something. I hate to break it to you, but even you would have great problems with it without support. These beasts are just way too tough." Specter stated firmly, and he just knew that Chaser was about to press him to try and do it regardless, so he quickly extended his sentence. "However, I can quite easily kill it if I'm allowed to make myself a weapon."

"We will kill it together, I won't let that pleasure be yours alone. And I don't care how you do it, but how would you 'make' yourself a weapon?" Chaser asked, his turn to be confused.

"You will see." Specter tried to imitate Chaser's tone from earlier. "Give me a bit of time to search through these woods. And when I'm back, I'll make a handbag out of that croc."

Chaser somehow wanted to inquire what Specter meant by two rather strange ones of his words, but the fastbiter has already jumped up and disappeared in the underbrush.

* * *

When Specter returned after 20 minutes, he was wielding another one of his creations in his claws, another huge spear. However, it differed from his previous weapon in numerous ways. Obviously, it looked like the crude stick it actually was since he had no time to make it look especially appealing in those few minutes. The main difference was the lethal part of it, this time not simply a pointed wooden end but a sharp stone attached to the stick with some vines. This little difference would enable it to penetrate a skull, given enough force. And Specter's size and weight rather safely ensured that force.

"Seriously?" Chaser questioned in disbelief regardless. " _This_ is your weapon? This is what you claim your past kind managed to take down massive leaf-eaters with? A stick? My father, Red Claw, has been killed by _this_?"

"It won't be so funny when you have 'this' piercing your throat." Specter responded, trying not to show that he felt quite insulted. "And neither will it be for that bellydragger once it has 'this' sticking in its tiny-ass brain."

"You make it sound like you already know quite well how to kill them." Chaser noted, though he was rather delighted to hear that. He still wasn't really able to comprehend how it was possible for Specter to know most creatures' strengths and weaknesses when he had apparently never seen them before, but his explanations always made sense somehow.

"I do, and it's actually quite simple if we do it correctly. Bellydraggers like this can bite down harder than you can and are heavier than you and me together, but since their head is so long, they can't open their jaws anymore as soon as you manage to keep them closed once. So I would suggest that you bite it in the snout and hold it in place, I will jump on its head and then ram that into its brain." Specter explained his simple tactic and used his spear to stab the air a few times.

"Sounds rather pathetic for a swamp sharptooth that is supposed to be able to take me on alone." Chaser taunted. "Let's just say you're right and that ugly thing really is more dangerous than I am... Are you not missing something?"

"Well... If I miss its brain... then we might have a little problem." Specter gave his honest answer, frowning slightly as he imagined what the outcome in that scenario would be.

"Make sure you don't, then." Chaser concluded and stood up. "Let's kill a bellydragger."

Specter affirmed with a grunt, and both hunters moved towards the water. Standing 20 meters away from the lake, they moved into their positions and waited. And it didn't take long for movement to erupt on the surface again, for a pair of eyes to stare right at the dinosaurs. Following that, more and more armored skin emerged from the liquid until the whole, 12 meter long and over eight tons heavy Sarcosuchus moved on land and stared at the predators which had denied it its meal.

"So you are the two biters who scared my food away." The gigantic creature hissed in the usual tone of its kind, showing off some of its deadly teeth.

Neither Specter nor Chaser answered to that, both of them simply changing up their stances into combat postures.

"I see..." The Sarco hissed once more, an ugly sound that was probably supposed to be a laugh following. "It's been quite some time since I last had two-footer for dinner. And a fastbiter this big? My, my! Maybe the little biters will actually have time to mate some more food while I digest both of you. Today must be my lucky day."

This time, the fastbiter and the two-footer only gave each other a short nod. This would be a nice opportunity to try out an interesting combined attack which Specter had proposed to him a few days ago, Chaser deduced.

 **Roar!**

And after his angry roar, the two charged at the massive bellydragger. Specter was obviously faster and more agile than him so he let the two-footer overtake him, moved behind him so that he would conceal even such a big fastbiter behind his bulky form. The bellydragger snapped its long jaws at Chaser but he swiftly evaded to the right.

 **Chomp!**

And bit down on the Sarco's snout, easily keeping it shut without using too much force. All his strength went into keeping it still, as the huge bellydragger lashed out with its tail and coiled left and right in an attempt to free itself. Then he bent his tail down to the ground and could feel Specter running up his back from behind and jumping over his head, onto the bellydragger's back. Were he not occupied with keeping the beast immobilized, he would've smirked at how effective this fuzzball's unusual idea of a combined attack was.

Specter easily held his balance after landing, spun around and raised his lethal spear, aiming at the small spot a little bit behind the crocodile's eyes where he would be able to instantly kill any type of its kind, even a prehistoric giant such as a Sarcosuchus. After all, these predators had not evolved much over the millions of years, they actually only shrunk in size by the time they reached Specter's original time, so it was rather likely that their anatomy was exactly the same. The same went for their weaknesses, of course. Having found the right angle to penetrate the multiple layers of thick protection and avoid hitting the incredibly thick skull plate, Specter jumped up and rammed his weapon down.

 **Crack!**

The sharp stone cut through skin and flesh, and it would've killed the bellydragger in one strike. It would have. Problem was, which Specter had not thought through while gathering the materials for this spear, the wood from those swamplands was very moist and brittle, giving it very little resistance to stress. And so, just before reaching the intended target, his spear got stuck and just broke apart, not doing much else but inflicting a little injury on the Sarco, only making it more furious.

The scenario Specter had been so afraid of was now in effect.

The huge bellydragger reared up, throwing Specter off its back, and jumped forwards, forcing the two-footer to abort holding it down his bite. With the sharp stone and a bit of wood still sticking in its back, the sharptooth eyed the two dinosaurs in hatred. Letting out a loud hiss, it went for the prone fastbiter which dared to injure it.

 **Chomp!**

Specter rolled away from the massive jaws snapping down where he had been lying moments before. He took another roll, throwing him back on his feet, and extended the distance to the Sarco, trying to coordinate another attack with Chaser. Something quite hard to do, since the bellydragger obviously also spoke sharptooth.

They tried to attack it from two sides but the reptile easily kept both dinosaurs at distance with its lethal teeth, powerful tail and incredibly good agility. It was slow to move forwards, but extremely fast to turn and fight on the spot. Chaser couldn't get a bite in and Specter wasn't able to safely jump on it. This went on for almost a minute until the Sarco focused solely on Specter again.

Which he actually was looking forward to.

"Chaser! Ditto!" He just yelled at his leader, hoping that he had explained to him what this word meant sometime, and charged at the bellydragger again.

Apparently he had indeed, because the Sarco ignored that word after the name and didn't react to Chaser charging simultaneously at it from the other side, this time from another angle, biting down on its snout once more to keep it shut. Specter used that to jump on his target's back again but as soon as he was up there, he lacked the critical idea how to take it down now. While his sickle claws were the biggest weapons probably any fastbiter on this planet could call his own, they were by far not deadly enough to penetrate the skin of this predator. The bellydragger below him coiled from side to side with all its force and he had to move his tail around with utmost precision to not fall off again. There was indeed little room for him to think of a useful strategy.

But then he had an idea. An idea he really did not like. He could only come up with this one thing, however. A last resort.

He jumped on the bellydragger's huge head and placed his feet over its eyes.

 **Shluck!**

And pushed both his sickle claws deep into the reptile's eye sockets, accompanied by another painful hiss from below, blinding it instantly. He had sworn to himself never to do such a dirty attack, but saw no other way around in that situation. The rest would be frighteningly easy from now on. Shockingly, even. He simply jumped on the ground and slashed one of the crocodile's front legs open. Noticing this, Chaser put all his weight onto that side and threw the Sarco on its back, bit down on its delicate throat and ripped it out.

Silence. Dead silence. But not for long, as Specter quickly jumped multiple steps back from the seemingly dead bellydragger and frantically gestured for Chaser to do the same.

"Get away from it! Now!"

Although it was inacceptable behavior to order the leader of a pack to do something, and he visibly contorted his face, Chaser obeyed and took a step away from their combined kill.

 **Chomp!**

And just in time. Because the still twitching reptile, although technically already dead, snapped out one last time at where he had stood before, potentially leaving a nasty injury on his leg postmortem. Then there was no movement anymore. For good. Only now, Specter relaxed his muscles again and walked over to his leader, joining his side, both sharpteeth looking at the huge bellydragger they had just taken down. It took him quite a while to come with something to say.

"Huh... We're quite the team, aren't we?"

"That still remains to be seen..." Chaser only commented. "But I'm impressed with your movement. You're almost ready."

"I'll try my best." Specter answered, swiftly went over to the bellydragger's underside and ripped out a few chunks of meat, contorting his face as it really didn't taste all that great. But, since he disliked killing when it was not for food, he found that this was the only way to justify his actions. But for now, he would sate his hunger a little.

Having swallowed a few pieces of meat and standing alone at the corpse, he was about to ask Chaser why he wouldn't come over when he suddenly felt some movement around his feet. He looked down in surprise and saw a tiny, blue Velociraptor child with black stripes across its back standing on his two toes. The little biter was barely big enough to reach the sickle claw on his second toe in height and as soon as he made eye contact with the youngling, it jumped off in fear and ran behind him.

He carefully turned around and could see 15 pairs of yellow eyes staring up at him, a fastbiter that was more than five times the size of an adult Velociraptor, in awe and fear. These eyes belonged to five adults and ten children, each one of the little Velociraptors in another color and the children always similar to at least one of their parents' hues. Specter searched for the child that had been standing on his foot for a moment and found it again, now standing next to an adult male, red in coloration. Without a female or any other children standing too closely nearby. He instantly understood where the rest of that family ended up being, looking back at the dead bellydragger. And just as instantly, he lost the little hunger he had before.

He raised his head again in search for Chaser and saw him standing between some trees a bit further away, facing away from the scene, his dark green skin making him blend in with the environment. Specter had to smile faintly and moved forwards, the little fastbiters immediately jumping away from his path. Just as he was about to disappear from the scene as well, a male voice from behind him spoke up.

"What... What is your name, fastbiter?"

Specter stopped shortly, bent his neck around and laid eyes on the lone, red, adult male fastbiter with his blue offspring.

"Chaser." Specter answered and walked away, hiding his smile.

He couldn't see the surprised looks from all the little sharpteeth anymore, and he knew they might've been able to sense that this was a lie, but he was indifferent about that. This act of just retaliation, maybe even liberation, was not supposed to carry his name. Though, was it really a just cause? Was it really his right to kill another sharptooth for trying to survive? Sure, he had eaten a bit from the corpse but that was not his intention in the first place. So maybe it was not just. But he figured that someday, a leaf-eater might come to take his life for taking one of its relatives'. Maybe he would even meet Morso again, the red fastbiter who would kill him for murdering his brother, Falce, just to save the life of a little swimmer. Maybe he would even meet the two adult swimmers again which he had encountered in the Great Valley, the ones whose children's aunt he killed, and maybe they would finally have him murdered or crippled in return somehow. Maybe then it would be a just cause.

But until 'then', Specter would live his life and carry on doing what he had to do. And for now, his life mostly consisted of training, more training, some killing, eating and sleeping in between, and then even more training. All of this to prepare him for an inevitable bloodshed, sometime in the future. He was just glad to have his three companions assisting him in that.

After finally reaching Chaser's flank again, the two big sharpteeth started moving back to their home.

* * *

 **A few hours later:**

The Night Circle was already high up in the sky and Chaser's snooze got interrupted by a familiar, yet unique scent and even more unique, soft footsteps closing in on him.

"Something troubling you?" He asked, eyes still closed, when the footsteps stopped.

Specter sat down next to him and stared at the crescent moon for a while, pondering about this day, the past weeks, his whole past life.

"I pierced its eyes out..." The black fastbiter finally spoke up in concern. "I can't believe I had to do something this... I've sworn..."

"You did the right thing." Chaser interrupted. "It was the fastest way to take down that piece of shit."

"Yeah, but... I am scared... that someone will do that to me someday. I mean... Look at what happened to you. You took that old threehorn's right eye and many years later, the little longneck took yours..."

This prompted Chaser to let out a snarl, open his eyes and sit up on his haunches.

"In contrary to that little sap-sucker, I always made sure to kill those I've done this to. The way I see it, it is hardly a 'dirty' attack when your victim dies anyway, or is it? Why not take your enemy's biggest advantage? Especially when you're only a fuzzball."

"Maybe..." Specter answered hesitantly, dismissing Chaser's strange taunt that was probably intended to cheer him up, after which some more silence followed.

"Anything else?" Chaser asked again, an honest, surprisingly caring tone in his voice.

"I've just been wondering... All this training... it's been weeks, and I'm beginning to feel ready to really help you now. So... when do you plan on attacking them?"

"Why the rush? I already told you, you still have much more to learn."

"I know, but... I... Because I miss them... My old pack... I know I promised to help you... and I will... but... I also want to go home."

"You miss them?" Chaser asked and chuckled lightly. "You miss and want to return to the pack that has abandoned you like that?"

This made Specter avert his eyes from the moon and look at his new leader with a heavy frown on his face.

"They have not abandoned me! If anything, I have abandoned them... It was my own decision to leave... But it was a mistake, and I want to go back, eventually."

"If you say so..." Chaser responded to Specter's defense, making eye contact now. "I certainly admire your optimism. Though I would be careful if I were you. An optimist quickly turns into a fool. Doesn't Seeker's pack have at least one flyer with them? And didn't they know where you were going?"

Specter looked away from him again and stared at the ground now. This was just another one of Chaser's perfectly clear innuendos, and just like always he had no other option but to agree with him. They really should've sent Petrie over just for a quick check. It wouldn't have taken more than a few hours of his time, even less with his family helping him search. However, he still refused to get angry with his friends. He was far too aware of his past actions to think otherwise. After all, he himself had told Petrie that he would not return.

But then another thought crossed his mind. What if they had already sent Petrie to look for him? What if the flyer had been there, right under his nose, and he didn't see him? And far more importantly, what if Petrie had seen him together with Chaser, together with Sharptooth? He wanted to think about the consequences but Chaser was already in the process of raising his voice again.

"But let's talk about what you really want to know... We will not hunt down those sharpteeth. I tried to do that for so many years, but they always eluded me. At least until I found a way... _They_ will come to _us_. Quite soon, as well."

"Why would they do that?" Specter inquired, tilting his head in surprise.

"Because between them and their goal lies our territory. There is no way past it."

"And... what is their goal?"

"As far as I know, the same I used to chase together with my father once."

 _Oh God... Not again... I knew this was just a matter of time... It's always the same shit, no matter if humans or dinosaurs..._ Specter noted to himself before speaking up.

"I see... But you've lived together with Shade and Alba for so long already... So how do you know they will soon make their move?"

"Remember the longneck herd?" Chaser questioned, which was quickly answered by Specter's nod. "They're getting impatient. They're making mistakes. And their final mistake will be to attack us here. But you shouldn't worry about that. For now, concentrate on your training."

"I will." Specter responded, stood up, shortly bowed his head before the two-footer, exchanging a few goodnight growls with him, and went off towards his own sleeping spot.

Accompanied by some heavy thoughts. He didn't even know what to think about this whole situation anymore. Though he was glad to have some more of his questions answered by Chaser, he was just as much growing increasingly uneasy. He was beginning to think ahead. He would help them in achieving their goal, but then what? What would become of Shade and Alba? They were his friends now, too. Would they just leave on their own? Would they allow him to join them? Would he even want that? Couldn't all of them together join up with Littlefoot and his pack? But most importantly, what would become of Chaser? What would become of the two-footer who has been driven by revenge for almost all his life? Would he go after the valley himself once more? Would he betray him right at the very end? Would he want to meet Seeker? Specter still felt like he was only keeping him alive because of all those things he knew. The possibilities as to what could happen to this pack of now four sharpteeth were endless

Or maybe he was just getting paranoid. Maybe they would all just part peacefully after a mission well done. Or maybe the sharpteeth they wanted to kill would never show up, and he would spend the rest of his life waiting here for them. Who even knew anymore, Specter asked himself again.

For now, all that was left to do for him was eat, sleep, hunt, repeat. Living the life of a Utahraptor. And he would conclude step two by getting a good night's sleep.

* * *

 **And there we go, this is Chapter 19. Couldn't keep my hands still, as I really wanted to finish this last installment before focusing on my duties. Also, we're slowly closing in on the end of Act II now, and this chapter will lead to the most important one there, Chapter 20. So stay tuned!  
**

 **Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this, please do let me know if you did, and as always:**

 **Take care, and until next time!**

 **P.S.: As you might have noticed, I put up a new cover picture for this story. It belongs to a scene from Chapter 15, which KelpGull has stunningly visualized on my request. So please, go ahead and check out her deviantArt page to see the complete image and many other cool artworks. I think you will not be disappointed. Thanks! :)**


	21. Chapter 20: Betrayal

**Chapter 20: Betrayal**

 ** _"To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal." - Malcolm X  
_**

 **One week later:**

Specter's eyes were firmly planted on the female albino Utahraptor closing in on him, her claws extended and ready to draw blood at any moment. But so was he, towering above her with his forelimbs spread and powerful legs prepared. To win this, he would have to give it his all, show everyone what he has learned so far. And he planned on doing that. After all, it was a matter of survival for him, and taking down the now second biggest fastbiter and by far the fastest sharptooth in this pack would also grant him a nice, succulent meal.

 _Just hope I can keep up with her... Well then... Let's dance._

Then Alba attacked. Specter swiftly evaded the flurry of claws, jumped back and forth while blocking whatever strike he could manage to and waiting for the right moment to strike back. When that moment came, he lashed out with his forelimbs, unable to hit her yet easily able to keep her away from him with precise strikes. At least until she ducked away under his claws, dashed forwards to his side and jumped.

Specter had no time to fend off this move.

 **Thud.**

But he also didn't need to. Alba had tried to copy the strange attack he used on that injured spiketail once, jumping straight upwards and kicking at the target with both feet to throw it off balance. However, Specter weighed a hefty 1,000 kilograms while Alba 'only' a bit over half of that. She simply lacked the force and momentum to throw such a massive fastbiter over, having had attacked without a run-up as well. So she hadn't done much but stagger him a bit while she herself basically bounced off his flank and landed on her back. But she was quick to roll over and jump up again, and the whole process repeated itself, though Specter did not allow her to get too close to him anymore.

This went on for second after second, and he was beginning to feel the mental and physical exhaustion alike as he evaded and returned every swing or kick of claws. But then an idea started forming in his mind, talons flying past his face making his thoughts clipped.

 _She... copied... one of... my own attacks... So maybe... I can..._

He concentrated even harder, trying to make out any change of pattern in Alba's attacks. The two fastbiters circled around each other now, observing, analyzing their opponent's moves while using the time to relax their important muscles a little. And that was when Specter finally completed his idea.

 _She really has observed me all the time... even now... But she can only counter what she's seen so far... Yes... So maybe I can use a move she hasn't..._

But he had little time to think about another one of those moves as she charged at him again. Still, he remembered one, rather effective for taking down an opponent equal to his size. And since he was exactly 70 centimeters taller than her, he figured that this would just about do the trick.

He smirked and lowered his head, keeping his arms close to his body now.

 **Thud!**

Until the very last moment, until Alba had been right in front of him and tried to go for his right side. Then he had extended one of them again, locked his right forelimb in under her neck, raised his head and jumped forwards with all his power, lifting her off her feet, spinning her around in mid-air and smacking her onto the ground to his flank. To finish this fight, he simply turned towards her and placed his dangerous foot claws on Alba's exposed throat. Ever so gently, as it was only the display itself that mattered.

"Well, well. Looks like our fuzzball won this one." Came a booming voice from a bit farther away.

"Nice job." Another impressed male made himself known from right next to the first.

Only now, Specter exhaled in exhaustion and changed up his stance, offering his hand to the prone female. Alba, however, as it was usual for her, kept a neutral expression, refused that offer and rolled over on her feet by herself, taking a few steps away from him. He could only give her an apologetic look, as he was quite certain that he had damaged her pride severely by beating her in a fight in such a fashion. For the very first time, too. Though he had long since made peace with her, she still was a character of great confusion to him and, despite the fact that he trusted her, he still mostly tried to stay out of her way, just be completely sure. But he was fine with that. He would never be forced to live together with her for the rest of his life, probably not even for much longer than another few weeks, so he just tried to make the best of it and keep his big mouth shut whenever he was around her. Admittedly, however, in the event this whole pack parted ways after their combined mission, he would miss her just as much as Shade and Chaser.

That she offered him a respectful nod in the end was more than enough for him to smile, and this gesture in combination with the little words, or rather growls, they had exchanged so far led him to believe that somewhere deep down inside of her, below layers and layers of emotional coldness, there was a personality he really would've liked to get to know. Maybe when all of this was over, he thought to himself, remembering his last conversation with her.

"And what was that now?" Shade asked, now standing next to him, quite in awe once again at another one of Specter's highly unusual yet very interesting attacks.

"Clothesline." Specter answered, still wearing a satisfied grin. "Doesn't kill you, but takes you down effectively. Works only on ankle-biters, though."

"More like works only if you're a fatso."

Shade's snarky response was followed by Specter's angry snarl and a mock bite, which he masterfully evaded in his usual fashion while laughing at the same time.

But Specter couldn't care less about those little insults anymore. He had the reward for his efforts to claim now. So he turned around to Chaser, who had watched these few rounds of fighting from the beginning and seemed to have enjoyed them, and walked over to him. Right in front of the sitting two-footer lay a longneck corpse, around two meters in height from its feet to its back and eight meters long. How Chaser always managed to snatch those juveniles away without an adult leaf-eater at least injuring him a bit was beyond him, but Specter was quite indifferent about that as well. All that mattered to him was that he was getting stronger and deadlier with every fight. And those little 'prizes' after every success certainly made him push himself to his limits each time anew, even though he had only suggested this novel 'reward system' around a week ago.

He stopped in front of the carcass, gave his leader an asking look to which Chaser nodded, and hungrily dug into the fresh meat.

As effective as this way of training was, it was just as fatiguing. Given that it was early evening by now, Specter hadn't eaten anything but the occasional Obamadon or Meganeura, small lizards and dragonflies respectively, he managed to catch in his free time in way over 24 hours. Although maybe exactly this circumstance was the reason why he really had given it his all in the training fight, and ultimately won it. And he really felt like he could potentially take on anyone after this victory, even the most fearsome of fighters, even long since defeated ones. Chaser, Shade, Littlefoot, Cera, Topps, Doc, Red Claw, Calin. Anyone.

But he knew just as well that firstly, he had only beaten Alba because he used an attack she didn't know about, and secondly, he would soon be up against what he presumed to be a few very big Ceratosaurs, dinosaurs rivaling him in size, surpassing him in weight, without lethal sickle claws like his own but with a way more fearsome bite, and also against some strange kind of raptors, apparently similar to himself in appearance but roughly with Alba's body proportions. Fighting those two species would be anything but easy, especially considering that he still didn't know for sure what exactly they were.

But for now, he enjoyed the delicious, long overdue meal and finally sated his hunger.

When he eventually raised his head and bloodstained snout again, only one-fourth of the longneck was left. He could've eaten the rest, too, but decided to let the others have a bit as well, as it was their training, their lessons and their devotion to this cause which had made it possible for him to become this strong. So he looked at Chaser, who was still sitting in front of the longneck, and tried to raise his voice, only for the two-footer to do it first.

"Eat up. You deserve it. I've already prepared a meal for us three, and there are a few things I would like to discuss with them on the way. I'll tell you tomorrow. Get yourself some rest now."

"Won't say no to that." Specter responded, flashing his bloody teeth. "Alright, I definitely will. Good luck, and happy hunting to you three."

Chaser nodded in return, stood up and moved into the sunset, Shade and Alba following after him. Specter watched the three sharpteeth until they disappeared between some trees and bushes somewhere in the landscape, still smiling at this sight. It was in these moments that it felt like as if he was still dreaming, living among those magnificent creatures, fighting against the hardships of nature and earning his presence on this planet. And in moments like these, he knew that his dream had finally become reality, if at the cost of billions of lives. Though, he always made sure to tell himself it had never been his fault that his wish turned out like this.

So he turned his attention back to his meal and resumed ripping it apart. Soon after, when pretty much only the bones of the longneck were left, he had his fill and instantly, massive weariness overcame him. Something he embraced. Something he definitely refused to fight against. Instead, he wiped his snout halfway clean with his hands and trotted towards the sleeping spaces.

Upon arriving there, Specter curled up under the sheltering rock, closed his eyes and immediately fell into a deep slumber.

* * *

When he opened his eyes again, it was deep in the night, heavy rain coming down from the skies which were almost completely covered in thick clouds. Though he wondered why he had woken up again when there was so much of this soothing rainfall, he definitely wanted to go back to sleep after this exhausting day. So he pressed his eyelids shut for a while as he tried to force himself to drop off again.

However, he didn't manage to do so. He was completely awake and full of energy, and his body refused to let that go to waste now. Peeking up at the sky, waiting for one of the huge clouds to move aside, he found an additional cause for his insomnia as well.

 _Full moon... Should've known... Always the same crap with you... Oh well, maybe I can find something to keep myself busy for a bit. But what would a Utahraptor enjoy other than hunting and... the usual stuff?  
_

Specter raised his head, let out a yawn, rolled over on his side to stretch his limbs and then rolled back on his haunches. He looked around himself, noticing that he was alone.

 _Where the hell are those two? Still out hunting...? More than five or six hours must've passed by now..._

He was beginning worry that something might've happened to his companions on their hunt, but then he took a few sniffs of moist air and found their faint scents on the empty spots to his flanks. He exhaled in relief and resumed his thoughts.

 _Hmm... They returned and slept here for a while, too... Huh... Never even noticed them. I sure was tired..._

So he figured that Chaser must've sent the siblings out on guard duty or something. With that settled, he stood up and walked into the rain, letting it wash some of the dried blood from his latest meal off his feathers and snout. But he still wondered what he could possibly do now. He started going around in circles, chasing his own tail for a while, but got bored of that within half a minute and lacked another idea.

 _As nice and peaceful as it is without it... some technology would really help here... At least something similar to it... An actual football instead of some severed head or skull would be nice to kill some time with... Then again, I would probably slash it with my claws...  
_

He sighed sadly, turned around and walked over to an odd, medium-sized rock, around a meter away from the sleeping spaces. An 'odd' rock because it obviously didn't belong on this spot. The reason for that became obvious when Specter lowered himself to the ground, picked it up with both hands and put it down a few centimeters away, revealing a hole in the ground with many black berries in it.

 _Maybe one of these will give me an idea..._

He grabbed one with his claws, threw it into his mouth and was just about to put the rock back on the hole when he noticed something.

 _Hey... I stashed at least 20 of them in there... I count 14 now..._

Shade and Alba both found it disgusting that he sometimes ate those things, so he quite safely ruled out that they had stolen his berries. This only left Chaser as a suspect, but Specter figured that he would grow a second tail before a two-footer like him would eat such things. Besides, Chaser never made an effort to come to the fastbiter sleeping spots anyway. If there was something he wanted from his smaller packmates, he would either send one of them to get the others or roar for all three of them to come over.

 _I guess then some rodents somehow dug under the rock and ate them, and the rain closed the holes... If I ever get my claws on you, you little shits... I hope some of you died on the juice, damn mammals...  
_

Going over his thoughts again, his slight anger immediately dissolved and he had to chuckle heartily at his rather new way of thinking. After that, he sat back down under the sheltering rock and continued his search for something to kill time with. Watching the raindrops dripping off the many leaves in this forest finally gave him an interesting idea.

 _Would a raptor or Tyrannosaurus, any dinosaur, to be honest, understand how to play this? Well, since we can talk, I think I could just try to explain..._

Specter stood up once more, walked over to the nearest tree and looked up at the lowest branches on it. They were around five meters above the ground, so he figured that it wouldn't be too hard getting to them. He jumped, used his big sickle claws to hold on to the massive trunk, repeated that and finally ripped a branch out, sliding back down afterwards. Then he picked leaf after leaf from that branch until he was holding 16 of them in his claws. For this game to work out properly, he would've needed twice the amount, 32 leaves, but he deduced that 16 were good enough to explain the basics and play a few rounds, as he didn't want to unnecessarily overcomplicate things.

He laid out all 16 leaves in front of himself under the sheltering rock and carefully used the claws on his forelimbs to scratch numbers and letters into them. The numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10, and the letters J, Q, K and A into the first eight, and then he repeated that with the second eight. He couldn't pronounce the letters anymore, but he still knew what they meant and how to translate them. Jack, Queen, King and Ace.

 _Shade's gonna love this, especially the rules! This game is not called 'Asshole' without reason, after all. Huh... Guess I will also teach Taunt how to play it so I can beat him in that, too! Should... I ever... see him again..._

The smile that had started to form after beginning this line of thinking disappeared as soon as he finished it. But he didn't want that to ruin his happy mood, so he stacked the 'cards', grabbed all of them with his hands and stood up to search for someone willing to play this game with him. Since it was raining so heavily, however, he wasn't able to pick up any of his friends' scents. With this in mind, he would ask Chaser first, as it was clear to him where the two-footer must've been right now.

And so he went off towards his usual place.

Upon arriving there after a few minutes, he laid eyes on Chaser's sleeping form. Just as Specter did so, he dismissed his thoughts about waking the two-footer up to ask him if he would want to play with him. The dark green Tyrannosaurus was growling angrily under his slight snoring, which led Specter to believe that he really disliked the rain and thus surely wouldn't be in a good mood if a playful fuzzball interrupted his sleep for a game.

 _Besides, you probably wouldn't even be able to properly pick up and hold the leaves with your small arms and two fingers... As much as I like your species, I'm sure glad I've not been changed into something as big and heavy as you. At least I can use most shelters... and have two properly functioning arms with an additional finger...  
_

He suppressed another chuckle and instead resumed his search for the two fastbiters, silently sneaking away from Chaser and leaving the forest.

But the farther he moved away from his home, the more he realized that this would prove to be a borderline impossible task. The heavy rain and overall darkness all around reduced his visibility to less than a few hundred meters, distorting what he could've managed to hear with his sensitive ears and he still couldn't pick up a familiar scent. By now, he was fearing that he might lose track of the way back since he was already moving into a direction in which he had never struck out before.

Then suddenly, he picked up one of these familiar scents he had been looking for, and Specter froze in his tracks to analyze it. Just in time, because he had almost stepped into the source of that scent. He quickly bowed down his head to analyze the place where a fastbiter from his pack had relieved itself, and he was surprised to find not only the scent of that sharptooth alone but also what it had in its stomach until recently.

 _So it was you who stole my berries! I've told you they would have an effect on your stomach if you eat too many of them... and you ate at least five at once, it seems. Serves you right for being so obstinate about this topic._

This time he couldn't hold back his amused chuckle anymore, and Specter swiftly raised his head again and engaged into a slow sprint. The minutes went by, and he was questioning if all this trouble would actually be worth it. Until he stopped again, let out an exhausted sigh and turned around towards where he had come from.

 _No use... I can't properly track under these conditions... I'm sure they are alright, and they're probably together as well... I guess they're guarding the other side of our forest... Anyway, time to head back home... Maybe I can go back to sleep now that I've ran a few kilometers..._

He was just about to sprint off when some roars and growls reached his ears. Some sharpteeth were having a conversation, it seemed, and they were having it somewhere not too far away. Though he couldn't pick up any meaning in the distorted sounds, he was interested by now, turned towards them and closed the distance.

At some point, the growls started making sense and he was able to understand some of the words they carried.

"Really? That's some ... news. This ... everything. It seems ... you're ... useful ... us. Skull? Report ... boss. I ... him know ... right now. He will want ... keep ... old ... alive then. And ... can ... ignore ... fool."

"Yes, sir!"

Specter didn't know who or what the dinosaurs were, having heard those voices for the very first time, but he was quite certain that the first one belonged to a rather big, male carnivore, and the second to another male raptor. In any event, he didn't stop his movement just now.

"Now... about that 'Specter'..."

The moment the first voice spoke out his name, Specter wanted to gasp in shock, but instead kept his mouth firmly shut. Soft footsteps of a sprinting fastbiter were rapidly closing in on him. Without any further thinking, he aborted his movement, noisily jumped to the ground and made himself as small as he could manage to in the cover of some bushes. The footsteps grew louder, until they suddenly stopped merely 20 meters away from him.

 _Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!_

Specter had his mind on overdrive as the closest sharptooth started sniffing the air and seemingly listened into the rainy night, searching for a sudden intruder. The footsteps came closer again, another five meters, then another two. His heart was beating violently right now as he tried to control his own breathing rhythm. Maybe he could take on this fastbiter, but he wouldn't stand a chance if he alarmed his bigger companions.

"Nothing... Pathetic..." The fastbiter spoke and resumed his sprint past him.

Only now, Specter exhaled and quickly raised his head out of his cover. But it was already too late. The last things he saw from that fastbiter before he disappeared out of his sight were the gray and white true feathers on his tail and arms with protofeathers on his main body, lacking the prominent crest feathers Specter himself had, and the fact that he was around two meters tall and maybe six meters long.

This was sadly not enough for him to identify the exact species, but it was by far enough for him to realize that this sharptooth definitely wasn't on his side.

 _That... must've been one of the raptors Shade's told me about! He really does look a lot like me... But... what... is he? Not a Utahraptor, that's for..._

He forced himself to interrupt his thoughts, as he was far more interested in what the nearby conversation was about and why on earth one of the sharpteeth had uttered his name. Where would anyone even know his name from? Nobody out here should know about that. In fact, nobody on this whole planet but his two packs, Ruby's family and a few Great Valley residents should. To avoid situations like these was exactly one of the more important reasons why he had told the Velociraptors in the swamp area that his name was Chaser.

He picked up his movement again, very slowly and carefully this time.

"Is that so? Nice job then. And you're sure he trusts you?"

By now, he was effortlessly understanding every single word, and Specter grew increasingly uneasy and more nervous with each blink of his eyes. The big sharptooth's voice certainly sounded like he would mean some serious business. And the topic he was discussing didn't exactly seem like a peaceful one.

"Yes, unquestionably. We had a rough start... I... almost killed him... but he was very quick to tell me a lot about himself, regardless. He won't suspect a thing, I'm sure of that."

Specter's eyes grew wide at this new voice. Because it was only a new voice in this conversation. It was a Utahraptor's voice and he knew it, whom it belonged to, but there was just no way this could be true. It just couldn't be. He must've been wrong. His beloved ears must've played a trick on him. Surely, this was just a side effect from that black berry.

"Good. Good... Then I might just take in all three of you. You're lucky you don't take after your brother, else you would've already ended like him."

He stopped right in front of some more foliage, shielding both sides from noticing each other. He wanted to finally see everyone behind that cover, but he couldn't do it. He was shaking with fear and horror, unable to move a muscle. But he knew that he just had to do it. He had to see who the sharpteeth really were and if they really were hostile, if they really were the ones he has been trained to kill.

So, after a few shuddering breaths, he moved forwards again.

With shaking legs, arms and tail, still clenching the stack of leaves tightly in his claws, he edged through the bushes and laid down on his haunches. And when he finally laid eyes on those five sharpteeth standing together, only around 50 meters away, his heart stopped beating for a moment and it felt like as if the whole world came crashing down on him.

 _Oh no... Oh please not those... Fuck...  
_

He couldn't care less about the lone Utahraptor among those sharpteeth right now, as his sight on that raptor was blocked off by them anyway. He was solely interested, and utterly horrified, by the big carnivores. Because those were not Ceratosaurs. It was only now that he realized he should've really asked for some more details on those sharpteeth's appearances and maybe taken the severed arm he had found among the dead longnecks to his pack instead of relying on his knowledge about dinosaurs and understanding of the basic language of this time.

 _Narrow head, two horns above the eyes, unusable, stiff arms which are pointing backwards with four fingers and basically no claws... Those are... Carnotaurs!_

Three of the four 'horned sharpteeth' were fully grown adults, standing three meters tall, nine meters long and Specter estimated them to be weighing a healthy two and a half tons, which was not much when one considered their sizes but they were sprinters, after all. All of those three adults looked roughly the same, dark grey and red protofeathers covering the upper parts of their necks, backs and tails, and dark grey true feathers with red outlines on their tiny arms. All the other parts of their bodies were unfeathered, the colors there being mainly red and dark grey with a light grey tone running along from their throats to the undersides of their tails. However, there was also a fourth sharptooth, a noticeably younger and slightly smaller one, the outlines of his true feathers were blue with the same coloration on his protofeathers and unfeathered body parts. And his two horns were almost white.

 _Is that... the one whose arm I...?! No... No way! Why would they do that and still leave him alive? They look like brothers... except him... but still... Just why?  
_

And it was quite obvious to Specter who the alpha there was and whom this cold, deep voice belonged to. His two horns were blood red instead of black like those of his similar looking companions, his eyes orange and he surpassed everyone else in size. He couldn't have been anything else but the leader.

 _That must be this 'Bloodhorn'..._

But Specter had little time to assess that sharptooth as he suddenly turned right towards him and looked over at the cover behind which he cowered.

"I thought you have not been followed?" Bloodhorn remarked, sniffing the air a few times.

Specter's heart started beating even harder. However, it wasn't necessarily because of that Carnotaurus seemingly smelling him out but rather because by turning towards him, he had revealed the Utahraptor among them. Maybe Specter had been fooled by his ears, but his eyes didn't do the same now. And so he stared in disbelief and incomprehensible horror at the raptor which he thought belonged to his pack and was his friend. As he did so, his hands started shaking and one leaf after another slipped out of his grasp. If it had felt like as if the whole world crashed down on him before, it now felt like as if the entire universe collapsed on him.

 _No... No, that's impossible! You?!_

This was just too much to process for his mind. He felt the desire to scream out that fastbiter's name. He couldn't control himself anymore, there was just too much anger and confusion building up inside of him. He already took a deep breath.

But he never got the chance to utter a word.

"Shade?!"

Because another sharptooth made itself known, its voice originating only around a dozen meters to Specter's left flank. And that sharptooth, this fastbiter, couldn't hold back either and moved out of cover.

 _Alba...? Did she... follow me here?! Oh no..._

Specter could only watch in anxiety how the female albino Utahraptor closed the distance on the huge predators and her dark blue brother between them. Shade seemed to return this overwhelmed stare of horror to his sister, but didn't dare to say a single word.

And then Alba, without any thinking, charged right at the biggest sharptooth. She never got the chance to make contact with her target.

 **Slam!**

The horned sharptooth with blue feathers had swiftly moved into position and rammed into her flank with his head, not injuring her too severely but easily knocking her over. Came the next moment, the other two Carnotaurs walked up to her and each pinned her to the ground, the first by placing one foot on her neck and the second by placing one on her back.

"Why...?!" Alba tried to shriek out, but the big predator to her front increased the pressure on her throat and choked her to silence.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Bloodhorn said, now stalking around the prone female and sniffing at her. "A White One. Interesting... So she's your sister?"

Shade only answered with a hesitant nod, unmoving.

"What do we do with her?" One of the sharpteeth who restrained the female from behind asked. "Should we kill her?"

Bloodhorn looked over at Shade, who was still wearing a shockingly neutral face.

"No. In contrary to Skull and Shade here, I honor my agreements. However..." He now walked over to the blue fastbiter and bowed down his head very close to him. "You lied to me. Again. So I think it's time for a test of loyalty."

Having said that, already wearing a dirty smile on his face as an idea started forming in his mind, he walked over to his youngest brother, Aries.

"I want you to do something for me. Her kind is very special, you see. I have never seen one myself, but the legends say that White Ones are different from any normal sharptooth. Wouldn't you like to have your arm back, brother? Well, Aries, all you have to do is..."

His next words were unintelligible to Specter, as Bloodhorn almost whispered them into his brother's ear, but he just knew that nothing good would come of them. When Bloodhorn pulled back his head, he could see the younger Carnotaurus, Aries, nodding firmly before he turned towards Alba and moved in on her. And it was now that he also saw the injured flank of that sharptooth. He was missing his right forelimb.

 _That's him! So their alpha... He ripped his own brother's arm out?! What kind of...?!_

Specter, once again, didn't have time to finish his thoughts. Because he could see the blue-feathered Carnotaurus now standing right behind Alba, slowly lowering himself to the ground, while one of his brothers pulled Alba's tail to the side. It didn't even take him a split second to realize what that sharptooth planned on doing with the female raptor now. Or rather what he planned on doing _to_ her.

His anger was rising, doubling with each hasty breath. He wanted to charge in there and rip apart every single one of those creatures. He really wanted to. However, there was still one feeling besting his anger. And that was his fear. By attacking now, he would lose his life. Most definitely. Thus fear and anger mixed, until there was only cowardice left. He actively refused to help his female friend. All the training in the world could never have prepared him for this situation. More so, no training could've taught him courage.

And so he just watched, killing the sharpteeth only in his thoughts and taking his own life after that for his disgusting hesitation and fear.

"Stop it!" Shade suddenly screeched out, Aries aborting his order and standing up again. Upon seeing this, Shade turned to Bloodhorn. "Do what you must, I won't stop you. You know where my loyalties are. But I refuse to watch this."

Bloodhorn tilted his head in surprise, still that dirty grin on his face.

"Huh... And here I thought you cared about your dear sister... but I can see now why you wouldn't. She's one ugly thing, even for your fastbiter standards. No wonder Skull wanted to rid her from this world. Very well. That's your choice." Then he looked over at his three brothers. "Finish this and take her with you. How you do it, I don't care. Just make sure not to kill her. No traces."

"Shade!" Alba finally screamed, even under the massive pressure on her neck. "You... You monster! I trusted you! After everything you've told me! Everything we've been through! Why are you doing this?! What would mother or father say?! What would Gleam or Nex say if they saw you like this?!"

Shade frowned heavily, but before he could give his response, Bloodhorn let out a shattering laugh.

"Yes, Shade, what would they say? Shall we go and ask them? I'm sure you still remember the place quite well you picked for them to die in."

Alba ripped her eyes open even wider to that response, especially to her brother's calm and accepting reaction.

"Why couldn't you just listen to me and rid us of that damn fuzzball?" Shade answered himself now, determinedly but with deep calmness in his voice. "Everything was fine until he showed up! Everything went according to plan! And everything would've stayed alright, had he left again... I'm so sorry, sis... I'm sorry this had to happen... But it's for the good of all. It will be over soon."

After that explanation, Shade and Bloodhorn exchanged nods, turned around and sprinted off, the huge, horned sharptooth easily keeping up with the fastbiter's speed.

Specter was still shuddering at this whole situation, shuddering with emotional pain and emptiness. He was nowhere near able to comprehend this. In merely a few minutes, everything he had thought to know about the siblings, about himself and about the world had been shattered to pieces. And thus cowardice finally mixed with boiling rage and this painful emptiness, until there was only hatred left.

The last thing he saw before closing his eyes was Aries lowering himself down on Alba again, the last things he heard were her screams of fear and pain, and the last thing he felt was the burning desire to kill.

And then he jumped up and charged ahead.

 **Shluck!**

His movement sounds covered up by the rain and not letting out a screech this time, Specter had jumped at the big Carnotaurus to Alba's front, both his sickle claws drilling through his flank and neck, his momentum and weight throwing the massive predator over to his side. The horned sharptooth didn't even have the opportunity to scream, as Specter continued his series of attacks by slashing his throat twice, just to make sure.

 **Roar!**

The other sharptooth to Alba's back reacted immediately, jumped back from her and attacked the intruder who had just murdered his brother with an angry roar.

 **Slice!**

And that was all that Alba needed. Aries didn't react in time to this sudden change of events, so she had spun around to her back and kicked upwards, slicing his whole underside open all the way to the base of his tail, making it rain mostly red bodily fluids on her white skin. The predator emitted horrible, high-pitched sounds of pain and lost his balance. Following that, Alba rolled on her feet and jumped at her target, knocking him completely over and on his back, and lashed out with her forelimbs.

Meanwhile, Specter had the remaining Carnotaurus charging at him. Just like months ago, just like with that threehorn from his first hunt, he was swathed in deep calmness at this highly dangerous, horned dinosaur attacking him with murderous intents. Maybe his training had worked out in the end, after all, because the only thing on his mind right now was to kill that predator without dying himself.

 **Chomp!**

He swiftly evaded that reckless bite, dashed forwards and sliced the sharptooth's leg wide open, ramming him in his side afterwards, throwing him over, too. Came the next moment, the Carnotaurus had both of Specter's sickle claws ripping through his exposed throat in turn. And then again. And again. And again. Until the gurgling sounds stopped.

Then he was dead. Then there was silence.

Although not quite, because Specter could still pick up the sounds of ripping flesh and slashing claws. He was still breathing heavily, still shaking and still filled with adrenaline. He started counting from one to five in an effort to sort out his mind. He had to do that twice until the effect kicked in and he could think clearly again.

Then he turned around to Alba, and contorted his face at the sight that greeted him.

 **Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice!**

She was the reason why there was no silence, as she was still sitting on top of her almost-violator and slashing into the dead Carnotaurus' throat, blood splattering all around and on her.

"Alba..." Specter finally spoke up, now standing behind her. "He's dead... Hey... Alba...?"

But no reaction came.

So he moved forwards again, grabbed her with both arms and pulled her away by force. He had to dodge one last swing of her claws by jerking his head out of the way, but then he quickly pressed her blood-stained body against his soft plumage, and her violent, rage-filled strikes finally stopped. Instead, she started crying heavily, tears of pain, anger and confusion running down his just as bloody, black feathers.

"Shhh... Shhh... I'm here... It's alright... It's over..." Specter tried to comfort her as best as he could, gently stroking her head and neck.

They just stayed how they were for a few minutes, until he felt her slowly calming down again, judging by her heartbeat and breathing rhythm.

"Come on now... Let's go home... We shouldn't stay here..."

Specter still supported her as the two fastbiters left the clearing, trying to prevent her from looking back at this horrible scene behind them. And he had to force himself to not look back, too. It wasn't all the blood and some innards on the ground that was horrible about it. It weren't the Carnotaurs, all three of them ripped wide open, which gave the place its brutal touch.

No, none of those things made the sight so painful, horrible and brutal. What really made it disgusting to look at was the fact that a dear friend and brother died here, without leaving a corpse. A friend and brother who would never return as such again.

A friend and brother who was now an enemy.

* * *

It took the two companions almost an hour to reach their home. It was still raining heavily, the sight was still bad and Specter hadn't quite remembered the whole way back. Even if he had, his mind was such a mess after the latest events that he would've forgotten anyway. And now that they arrived, both of them laid eyes on Chaser. The two-footer had his left eye wide open in shock and surprise, but before he could speak up, Alba detached herself from Specter's support and sprinted into the forest.

Specter sighed in exhaustion and walked up to his leader, who closed the distance on the black fastbiter just as quickly and eyed him for a while.

"What happened?" Chaser immediately asked ahead, having seen how despite all this Sky Water, both fastbiter were still covered in blood. "Where is Shade?"

Specter's head dropped and he stared at the ground for a while, shaking his head. This was apparently already enough of an answer to Chaser as he heard the Tyrannosaurus take a step back and gasp faintly. But he definitely wanted to let him know the details, so he spoke up. With a shuddering and shaky voice, remembering the events from earlier.

"Horned sharpteeth... Bloodhorn... Shade... he... he betrayed us... He's with them... They wanted to... test his... loyalty so they... They... Alba... she almost got... I almost let them... I..."

Chaser moved forwards and placed a comforting paw on Specter's back.

"I understand... No need to tell me about this again. Let me handle the rest, alright? You just look after her. She needs it now more than ever."

"Understood." Specter responded a little bit more firmly and slowly went off towards the sleeping spaces, where he suspected Alba to be now.

He arrived there rather quickly and saw her curled up beneath the sheltering rock, shaking and twitching under her suppressed weeping. This sight almost brought tears to his own eyes, but he had already shed enough of those in this time. So he laid down on his haunches on the little overhang once again to sort out his own mind first, gazing up at the crying skies, letting it shed the tears in his place.

 _How could you do this to us...? Of all the fastbiters... of everyone who had a reason to take them down... why did it have to be you to join them...? I just... don't understand... Why didn't you tell anyone...? Why did you pretend to be my friend...? Why did you pretend to be her brother...? Just..._

His cogitations got interrupted by soft, irregular footsteps closing in on him from behind. Soon after, he felt Alba burying her head in the soft feathers on his left flank.

 _I can't be your brother... I can never replace someone like this... But maybe... all you need is a friend..._

With that thought in mind, he put his left forelimb around her, sharing her grief and suffering. He wanted to let her know that he understood how she felt, at least in some way, but figured that this would be one of the most insulting statements to ever utter. He knew many things about dinosaurs, about this world and about that which was once supposed to follow after this one, but when it came to such relationships, he didn't know anything, especially not how betrayal from one's own sibling felt like.

What he knew for certain was that there were unpleasant things to follow from now on. He knew that this whole mission was pretty much doomed. Yes, he and Alba had killed three of those horned sharpteeth, but there was at least one more of them alive, probably by far the strongest and most frightening, and with him stood likely many more of those 'new' raptors. With Shade working for them, they would also have a fastbiter who was aware of everyone's fighting styles, strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, their enemies knew pretty much anything they needed to know.

In the end, however, Specter had no choice but to accept this fact and see what Chaser would come up with. Anyhow, tomorrow would be a new day. If it would be the last day of his life, everyone's lives, he didn't dare to think about. If it was, and if he would never return to his old friends, he wanted to be close to his new friends at least.

So he flexed his neck around, lowered his head and finally offered Alba a comforting nuzzle, a gesture which she hesitantly accepted and returned. After that, she rested her head on his back and the two fastbiters stayed how they were again.

* * *

 **Some time later:**

Bloodhorn stared at the bodies of his three dead brothers, a blazing fire of anger and hatred burning in his orange eyes. How this could've possibly happened was beyond him, but he was certain that he would not let this go unpunished. Never. And he could guess perfectly well who the fastbiter responsible for this was.

"Sir? How will we proceed now?" A voice from behind him spoke up.

He began to shake, moments away from letting out a shattering roar of rage. But then it suddenly stopped, and he calmly turned around to the dark blue and grey fastbiters.

"You've trained him well indeed. Maybe he will prove to be a challenge before I rip him to pieces." He spoke to Shade, after that addressing Skull. "I want everyone to prepare. Tomorrow, we will end this."

The two fastbiters nodded, turned around and sprinted off again, leaving him standing there alone. He was quick to follow after his subordinates this time, however. He wanted to get the maximum amount of rest out of this night.

For tomorrow, there would be blood.

* * *

 **And thus I would like to conclude this installment. I hope it lived up to its name and that I've made it accordingly enjoyable (as enjoyable as those topics are) to read.**

 **I also hope you like it and if you do, be sure to let me know!**

 **The next chapter will probably conclude Act II, but it will take me some time to write it as I have important things on my schedule now.**

 **So, until then, as always:**

 **Take care, and until next time!**


	22. Chapter 21: Dead End

**Chapter 21: Dead End**

 ** _"Dead-end roads don't mean you've come to your end, just means you need to take a different detour." - Anthony Liccione_**

 _"Daddy! No!"_

 _Alba could only watch from her safe position how three of those feathered fastbiters pounced on her father at the same time, ripping him to pieces in a matter of moments. Even though he was one of the biggest fastbiters around, standing way over a head taller than his mate and even surpassing some of the current aggressors in size, he never stood a chance against three sharpteeth attacking him at once. The last things she saw of his prone form were the light grey skin with a white tone on the underside of his body and insides of his legs, every color of his body now bloodstained, though, and this painful smile of hope he threw at her, as if he was sure that at least his daughter would survive this. Then a sickle claw drilled through his eye, into his head, piercing his brain and ending his life._

 _His mate swiftly moved in front of her already same-sized, adolescent offspring and extended her forelimbs to shield her from this certain demise with her body, dark blue skin and black stripes across her back. But there were more than ten of those strange fastbiters out to kill her family. There was no chance anyone would overcome this. Still, she held her ground and gave her unique daughter one last, extensive look._

 _"Alba... please... just run."_

 _"No! I won't leave you alone, mommy! I will never!" Alba immediately retorted. This didn't even come out of desperation. Her parents were all she had left in her life, and one of them had just been killed. Without both of them, she would die anyway. Her two brothers, Shade and Gleam, and her sister, Nex, had long since formed a new pack and everyone except Shade refused to let her join them. This would've been her final option, but she had been denied it from the start. Nobody would take in someone like herself, a hatched outsider, hated by everyone because of her appearance. There was no point in running, anyway.  
_

 _The adult female changed up her gaze and it now turned into an almost apologetic one, almost expressing that she would be sorry for what was coming next from her, as she quickly gave Alba a loving nuzzle followed by a lick over her snout.  
_

 _"Please, my dear... I know you can make it... even without us. I believe in you... and so did your father... Someday, I'm sure you will find someone who loves you as much as we do... But now... just run. And don't look back... Do it for me. Run!"_

 _Alba wanted to protest again but her mother pushed her a little bit backwards and already charged forwards herself, right into the group of enemy sharpteeth. A sacrifice and her final mistake concurrently. One of the biggest fastbiters of them, a male with grey and white feathers, the outlines of a skull visible on his head via the same coloration of skin and feathers, reacted way too quickly, jumped to the side and kicked out. His killing claw pierced the female's leg and forced her to lose balance so that she crashed onto the ground, having not done much else but inflicting a few scratches on him and one of his followers. Following that, he jumped on her prone body, jaws snapping down on her neck, pulled her head upwards and almost presented it to the remaining member of this family, almost toying with it as he tilted his head left and right, blood running down from his exposed teeth. Right before he gave his head a forceful twist. A loud cracking sound emerged from the female's neck and she dropped lifelessly to the ground._

 _Alba, however, had never reacted. She was still frozen in her tracks, tears rolling down her snout, stunned by fear and horror. Even when all of the 15 feathered fastbiters with their skull-faced leader at the front slowly moved in on her, claws still extended, she didn't flinch.  
_

 _"Pff... That was way too easy... What now, Skull?" The fastbiter who walked right behind his leader asked. "Can't we just kill that ugly bitch? Why did you agree on letting her alive?"_

 _"No, Decay, I agreed with him on not hurting her..." Skull responded, wearing a wide smirk, flexing his bloody sickle claws while walking. "That doesn't mean we can't kill her. But where would be the fun in that? So first... let's have some fun with that... thing."_

 _The menacing fastbiter stopped around his own length away from her, giving Alba an expecting look, waiting for her to react. She did not. So his look quite soon turned into an almost insane one as the female didn't move a single muscle._

 _"What are you waiting for, huh? Why are you giving me that look?! I'm sorry... but... I don't... like that look you're giving me! Are you testing me? Are you?! ARE YOU?! HUH?! COME ON! Do as your mommy told you! Run. Run! RUN!" Skull screeched in her face._

 _A few moments of shaking followed for Alba, but then she finally snapped out of it, spun around and darted away. Which was accompanied by multiple high-pitched shrieks from right behind her._

 _"Run, little biter! Run! RUN! RUN FOR YOUR PATHETIC LIFE! RUN!"_

 _She did like the voice commanded. With all her speed, Alba ran. She knew that she's always been the fastest sharptooth in the family, but those fastbiters behind her actually kept up with her insane pace, laughing and mocking while letting out those terrorizing screeches with every blink of her eyes. She didn't look back. She didn't even know if they were closing in on her or if she started losing them. She could already feel their hot breaths close to her neck, the world of pain that was about to descend upon her.  
_

 _But then, for a brief moment, time seemed to stop. Everything was still and silent when Alba, out of the corner of her eye, saw another fastbiter who was_ _ _very much hidden in the darkness_. A fastbiter without those feathers. And it was only now that she relived this memory for yet another time that it was clear to her who this fastbiter, standing on top of a rock several longneck-lengths away, actually was. That fastbiter had dark blue skin with black stripes, just like her mother. For the past times, she always thought that her mind played a trick on her, that she had seen a dead dinosaur walking, her mother somehow guiding her. Not this time. Unlike her mother, this sharptooth was a male. She couldn't smell that but she just knew, if only now for the very first time. And that male was missing one of his forelimbs. The left one.  
_

 _Him closing his yellow eyes, turning away from the scene, jumping off the rock and slowly walking into the darkness were the last things she saw before she closed her own eyes and concentrated solely on staying alive again. Running faster and faster, faster than the wind and faster than those fastbiters...  
_

* * *

 **Thud.**

Specter slowly opened his weary, sleep-deprived yellow eyes at that sudden sound of a body hitting the ground. He first laid eyes on the corpse of an adult Mantellisaurus, a Hadrosaur that was two meters tall and seven meters long, and then on the massive Tyrannosaurus, who was pretty much exactly twice the prey's size, standing right behind it. Though he had heard and smelled him and the dead leaf-eater coming for quite some time already, he was pretty surprised that such a huge predator was also able to move around rather silently when he really wanted to, at least compared to the usual noise he made while walking or especially running. But he was even more surprised that Chaser apparently offered him and Alba this meal.

He just wanted to speak up when some more muffled whimpering and clipped growls could be heard from his left flank. These painful sounds have haunted him for the entire night, kept him awake for hour after hour. But he wasn't angry about that. After all, this could've been prevented. This had to have been prevented. If only he had paid more attention, then maybe all of this could've been stopped in its tracks. Alas, however, he had not and it just happened.

So he gently stroked Alba's neck and back for a bit while letting out some mild growls of his own and she went silent again, though her constant twitching did not stop.

"How is she holding up?" Chaser asked in concern.

"Bad..." Came Specter's exhausted response. "She's been having nightmares the whole night... Every time the same one, I think..."

Although Chaser didn't really want to ask this question, and he pretty much understood what Specter wanted to say anyway, he felt like he had to know for certain in this case.

"What's a 'nightmare'?"

Specter's head dropped for a moment and he let out drained sigh as he stroked through his golden crest feathers with his right hand.

"A... very bad sleep story... Sleep terror you would call it, I think..."

 _Yeah... sleep terror is the right wording for what she's having... What all of this has become..._ He added as an afterthought.

"I see..." The two-footer spoke softly again. "And what about you?"

"I'm alright..." Specter forced himself to answer.

"You neither look nor sound alright. Come on, tell me."

"It's just that... I could've... No... I _should've_ done more... I should've paid attention... It was all so obvious... and I didn't see it..."

"There was no way you could've seen this coming." Chaser instantly responded. "Don't blame..."

"No, Chaser, I am to blame..." Specter cut him off. "I heard what he said... He told her that all of this happened because of me... and that it would've been alright, had I left again... I couldn't smell much in the rain but... I just know this was the truth... Those sharpteeth probably saw a threat in me... That's why they killed the longnecks... only a day after I arrived here... Can't have been coincidence... And that's also why Alba almost got... why I almost let them..." Now he cut himself off, reorganizing his thoughts. "On my first night here... when all of us were about to go to sleep... he didn't really discuss anything with you, did he?"

Chaser didn't vocalize the answer to that question, giving his response only through the contortion on his face. Which Specter understood perfectly, of course.

"See...? I've guessed something like that... He seemed... different from then on... but I didn't say anything... I thought I could trust him... This is all my fault... I... I should've just died on that volcano... I'm only making everyone sad... I've destroyed so many families already and brought nothing but trouble to my pack... and to all of you as well... Nobody wants me... Nobody needs me... I don't belong anywhere... I..."

"Would you stop talking so much shit already?" Chaser now spoke firmly, though he kept his booming voice as low as possible to not disturb Alba too much. "I don't know why he decided to join them... but if anything, this is _my_ fault. I am the leader. I am responsible for anything happening to my pack. Do you think I didn't notice him leaving our territory on that night? Do you think I didn't notice you leaving yesterday? I told you that he likes to alter the truth, to be wary of him. I noticed everything. But just like you, I thought I could trust him... And besides, I am still known by some as Sharptooth, Specter, even though I hate every memory of that name. Pain, death and destruction is what followed me for all my life, and I was almost always the one leaving it. But did I give up? Did I stop fighting? Did I lose hope? No! So stop fucking blaming yourself, you damn fuzzball!"

His stern words made Specter stare at the ground again. He didn't even know if out of shame or sense. Maybe a mixture of both, even.

"It was my order for her to look after you." Chaser continued, nodding once at Alba, not softening up his tone at all. "She didn't like it, and you know that, but she still followed it. She is the most loyal sharptooth around, and if not for you, something would've happened to her sooner or later, anyway. The only one she's always been even more loyal to was her brother. So say what you want, but you being there yesterday prevented much worse things. You being here with us at all did so. You two alone killed three of those ugly bastards in one fight. Must I really explain how much that weakens these idiots? Must I really explain how much you helped us already?"

Specter shook his head but kept on staring at the ground in front of him before turning his attention back to Alba, who had her head still buried in the soft protofeathers on his flank.

"I want you to look after her from now on, just as she looked after you. And if you let her die, I will kill you myself." Chaser finished his earnest speech.

Although he needed almost a minute to digest all this, Specter ultimately restored eye-contact with his leader and spoke up again.

"I won't. I will protect her with my life. That's a promise." He said just as firmly, to which Chaser nodded and turned around. Before he would let the two-footer leave again, however, he definitely wanted to enunciate one more thing. "And thanks... I guess... I badly needed that."

"Eat your fills and tell me when you're ready." Chaser answered plainly, showing the blind side of his face to Specter. "Soon as the Bright Circle hangs highest in the sky, we will move out. Today, this ends."

Having said that, he walked off to contemplate some more about the next move. In doing so, he was hiding his slight smile from the fastbiter.

 _Yeah... Today, I will end this... Today, for once in my life, I will make everything right..._

It was only when Chaser's footsteps grew faint that Specter turned his full attention back to Alba. And it was also only now that he realized what exactly he had just promised his leader. Immediately, the inevitable questions shot up in his mind.

Why did he say that? Was he actually serious with that statement? Would he be able to keep that promise? Would he even want that? Would Alba even need that? If so, for how long would that promise last? A day? A week? A month? A year? A lifetime?

He decided to attend to these questions later. Because for now, there were far more important things that needed to be done. First of which would be having breakfast in preparation for a hard day.

So he lowered his head once more, flexed his neck around and gave Alba's snout a timid lick to wake her up. Just as Specter did so, her twitching instantly stopped and she seemed to snuggle her head even more into his warm, silky feathers.

 _Hey... I know I'm soft and fluffy, but I'm not a live pillow, you know... Come..._

"Mother..."

The moment she softly growled this word, Specter interrupted his thought process and his lifting mood fell again.

 _That part of your nightmare again, huh...?_

Then Alba slowly opened her bright blue eyes and stared right into his yellow ones. Already anticipating an erratic swing of claws, Specter quickly moved his head away and rather looked into the distance. A situation like this was more than new for him and he didn't know if he was making things better or even worse with his current behavior.

But no attack came.

He could feel her standing up next to him and then saw her move out into the open from under the sheltering rock towards the leaf-eater corpse, stopping in front of it with her head and tail hanging low. It was quite clear to Specter at this point that he had indeed only made it worse, and thus figured that the two of them should have their meal now and report to Chaser afterwards so that he would have no chance to do any more of those stupid things.

He let out a deep sigh, preened the last bits of Carnotaurus blood off his feathers and moved towards the carcass, too.

"Chaser brought this for us..." Specter explained, standing next to Alba. "We will make our move today... Let's eat now and head over to him, alright?"

She did not respond to that, only giving the faintest of nods. Specter held back another sigh and bowed his head down to feed on the dead swimmer. But then he suddenly felt some pressure on the left side of his snout as Alba gave him a nuzzle of her own.

"Thank you... for being here... for everything." She added to her gesture, quickly retracted her head and looked at the body before her again.

"You're welcome... Anytime." Specter responded, but he didn't smile or feel especially happy. To him, offering some comfort in a situation like this was a matter of honor. There was no joy supposed to be taken in this.

Following that, the two fastbiters dug into their meal in silence, only the sounds of ripping flesh and cutting teeth surrounding them on this occasion, just like almost every moment they had shared together before. But it was a painful silence this time, just as painful as the food tasted to Specter. He wanted to find it delicious, and it really was one of the best kinds of meat he had ever tried, but instead it only tasted like pain and death. It tasted like an upcoming defeat, like a so called 'last meal', the final meal of their lives.

It obviously took Specter much longer than Alba to sate his hunger but eventually, he had his fill, too. Nevertheless, she had not left his side even after she was finished. He found this kind of company to be both delighting and uncomfortable, as he was sure that she had once again observed his every bite into the carcass. Which made him notice that he had, like almost always, occasionally ripped out a slab of meat with his forelimbs to portion it more finely before swallowing it down. It also left him wondering if he would ever fully adapt to only eat with his mouth and not use the three sharp claws on his hands to cut out bite-sized pieces of meat, imitating to eat at least similarly like how he had been used to do it for so long.

After raising his head again, he spoke up.

"Come on now... Let's not keep him waiting."

Like before, only a faint nod should come as an answer from Alba. But this time she had raised her head and restored eye contact while doing so.

Before they would head out, however, Specter wanted to do one last thing. He went over to his stash of berries, moved the rock aside, picked one of them up and threw it into his mouth, crushing it below his tongue. And as the juice filled his oral cavity, he couldn't help but spare an extensive look at those berries, those berries which had somehow added to this mess, too. Their scents instantly brought him back to last night, brought up all the painful words and images from then.

 **Splat!**

With swift and determined movement, he kicked down into the stash, mashing all the remaining berries into black and purple liquid. He wanted to erase anything that still connected him to this forsaken place, a place that wasn't a home at all in retrospect. Then he wiped his foot on the ground, turned towards Alba and gave her a nod, suggesting that he was ready for departure now. Though she threw confused glance at him, she quickly joined his side and followed him towards where Chaser was already waiting.

The place where the two-footer was at wasn't all too far away, just one or two minutes of walking. Upon laying eye on the approaching fastbiters, he stood up, looked at the mostly overcast sky of this late morning and moved in on them.

"We're good to go..." Specter reported as firmly as he could, though he wasn't able to hide his afflicted mood. "Just say the word."

Chaser gave a deep, affirming growl as his answer, and the Tyrannosaurus with his two Utahraptor companions moved out. As they did so, and slowly left the forest which marked their home for a quite a long time, Specter looked back at the overhang close to the sheltering rock which had been his favorite place for weeks. He didn't know if he wanted to be sad or happy about this sight, as he connected both delightfully happy but also horrifyingly sad memories with it.

In the end, he couldn't come to a conclusion on what to think of it as it disappeared out of his field of vision. Probably forever and for the better, he figured, turned his full attention forwards and tried to clear his mind. Until he remembered that he forgot taking with him or getting rid of another important thing.

 _Ahh, shit! I forgot the spear I've prepared there... I guess I'll have to make myself a new one later..._

The massive forest had already long since vanished behind other foliage when Specter looked up at the cloudy sky, too.

 _Hmm... I remember heading this way with him already... And the sun's somewhere to my right... So... we're moving northwards._

This observation accompanied him with each of his steps, growing even more prominent when he saw the approaching swamp area where he and Chaser had killed that Sarcosuchus, where they had 'freed' the Velociraptors and all those other animals, passing by in the distance to his right side.

 _Definitely moving northwards... I wonder what his tactic will be... Knowing him, we'll probably ambush them... But... didn't the longnecks die somewhere in the south from our forest? Didn't... that... goddamn traitor, Shade... meet up with his actual allies somewhere southwest from there as well? I guess Chaser knows better than I do..._

So Specter kept his mouth shut and continued to follow the two-footer in silence. In fact, everyone kept silent for the whole trek which almost lasted two hours. The landscape went through all different phases in that time, from forests to grasslands, over to the swamplands until it started looking rather grim with lots of rocks, dried-out soil, dead trees and very few plants. It truly was an ugly sight, these lands without any flourishing flora, even for a full-fledged carnivore. Even Chaser seemed to dislike being here.

 _I'm sure glad we stopped for a drink and biobreak in between... This region looks awful. Hopefully it won't stay that way..._

But it should indeed stay that way as the trio slowed down their pace. And as the three sharpteeth circled around a rather big rock formation and came to a halt, Specter's mouth fell wide agape.

 _Holy... shit..._

Before them lay a gargantuan fault line, separating the ground they were standing on from the other side by at least 500 meters, extending for kilometer after kilometer into the distance from west to east, disappearing close to the horizon and probably continuing to run even farther beyond it. Visible far to the western side was the huge formation of mountains, somewhere behind which Specter knew the Great Valley must've been. But that didn't mean anything to him, anymore.

What he could quite clearly see now was that this place was a dead end.

"Welcome to the Great Divide." Chaser spoke, almost melancholically.

It took Specter some time to come up with something to say. Not only did this place tear his emotions apart just by its looks, but it also felt like as if he would never leave it again, as if he would end up as just another pile of bones in the dust, just another fossil. There was just something in the air around here that foreboded death.

"Why... have you brought us here?" He finally asked.

"Leave us alone for a while, alright?" Chaser said to Alba first, to which she nodded and laid down in the shadow of a big rock for some more rest. Then he turned to Specter and gestured with his forelimb to follow him once more. "Let me show you something."

Specter didn't hesitate and followed Chaser towards the edge of the chasm. He could see the two-footer already gazing down there, so he did, too. And when he looked down into it, down into the abyss that was even at this probably highest point at least one hundred meters deep, his eyes grew wide.

"Is... that...?"

Deep down at the bottom of the ravine flowed a wide river, and there were actually many signs of life. There were little trees, grass and plants. It was hard to see for the most part, but there were even some small dinosaurs and other creatures. However, none of those things surprised Specter all too much. What really caught his full attention were the bony remains of a large Sauropod. Most of the bones had long since disintegrated but some of the vertebrae, immensely long tail, the legs and head were still there.

Those longneck bones down there, from which it almost seemed like all this life originated, were unmistakably from an Apatosaurus. And there was only a single Apatosaurus from Chaser's and Littlefoot's stories alike, Specter knew had died here.

"Yeah... that's her. This place is where it all began." Chaser answered. "And it will be the place where it ends."

Specter gulped audibly and was quite frankly out of any useful words, yet had to ask this question.

"I understand, but... why here? Why are we not fighting them in the forest? You said yourself that it would be their final mistake attacking us there..."

"That was before Shade joined them." Chaser replied plainly, holding back a smirk as he saw that Specter's reaction to this obvious statement was that he smacked his own snout with his forelimb. But then his mood turned dead serious. "Speaking of which... Should it come to that, could you do it?"

"Could I...?" Specter already asked but quickly cut himself off there, as he realized now what Chaser was getting at. "Oh... Well... I... honestly don't know for sure but... I guess... yeah, I could."

Chaser let out a light chuckle at that. He remembered all too well how those things went when faced with in actual combat.

"So I told myself, too, once... until my own brother wanted to kill me."

Specter's firm response came instantly, this time.

"That's something different. He's not related to me. Any friendship we might have had... that asshole has nullified it with what he's done. If he's truly on their side... and if he truly wants to hurt only a single one of us... if he does as much as lay a claw on anyone... I will kill him."

"Huh... Strong words... We'll see..." Came the thoughtful conclusion. Then Chaser took a few steps away from the edge and laid down on his haunches. "Jump up. I want to know if they're already coming. And three eyes see better than one."

Specter had to smile slightly at that, but kept his eyes planted on the longneck bones for now.

 _I wonder... Was it really...? No... No, that's just nonsense... How would that work? It was them, all the time...  
_

Shaking his head once, he turned around, went over to Chaser and jumped on his back. When he assumed a firm stance, having locked his two toes on each foot into his carrier's haunches, obviously keeping his sickle claws raised, Chaser stood back up and both sharpteeth rose to their full heights.

"Damn... This must be what being a longneck feels like." Specter remarked from on top of the Tyrannosaurus with a full smile now. With him raising his head in the air, he was able to reach to a height of eight meters above the ground, granting him a very nice view and good vision of everything around. But he was quick to drop all of his joy again. He knew himself that he couldn't allow himself to get distracted now. So he scanned the vast distance in the south left and right with his sharp eyes. The sight was very good and his visibility must've extended several kilometers far, yet he found nothing but emptiness. "Nothing... Not a single living being closing in on us. You're really sure they will come today?"

"Would you wait when three of your brothers had been killed on the previous night?" Chaser asked rhetorically.

"Not really... I guess..." Specter answered hesitantly, making himself aware that if any of his remaining two friends would get killed today, this blood would forever be on his claws and feathers, too.

"Neither would I. And neither will they. Trust me, they'll show up."

Chaser lowered himself to the ground again, Specter jumped off and the two sharpteeth moved to a vantage point where they laid down side by side once more, gazing into the distance.

"You know..." Specter spoke up. "I've always wondered... When you found me so close to that Smoking Mountain... what exactly were you doing there, so far away from your actual territory?"

Chaser let out another light chuckle at that, earning himself a confused look by Specter.

"You were right in their territory. We were just about to attack what was left of them when you showed up. Quite funny, isn't it?"

By now, Specter was wearing an utterly horrified look on his face. It slowly started making sense to him. His actions had caused the volcano to erupt, which then caused those sharpteeth's territory to be destroyed, pushing them to pursue their goal even harder and more determined, hence the dead Argentinosaurs. He didn't know how many of them died right there already, but in a way, he realized that he had much more blood on his claws than previously expected. And he finally realized something else, too.

"Magno... Oh fuck..." He muttered to himself, and since Chaser stirred a bit at this to him unfamiliar name, Specter decided to elaborate. "Old Clubtail... I've told him how I imagined the way to the Great Valley... I said that he would be best to go right in that direction... I think he left about six or seven days ago... He must've walked right into them..."

"Huh... Nice move." Chaser commented, which earned him an angry look from Specter this time, but he was also quick to explain. "If they actually attacked a clubtail this big, they will have even less sharpteeth in their rows. And if they didn't... well, then that old sap-sucker might have even made it past them. Not that I'm happy for him..."

"Wait... Do you... know him?" Specter asked in some curiosity.

"Damn right I do. That bastard almost broke my legs..." Came the snarled response.

This made Specter actually smile a bit again.

 _I thought you would be smarter than that... Attacking an Ankylo of his size... especially when Seeker's mother already messed you up good... Hmm... I guess I should be glad I didn't send him northwards... Up here, he would've certainly found nothing but death... No real food anywhere... Should I never return, I hope that at least you will find your home in there..._

He concluded his thoughts and looked behind himself to see how Alba was holding up right now. She was still curled up next to a big rock and had her eyes closed, breathing calmly, so he figured that she might've finally found some sleep after all those horrible things that happened to her. Things that did happen or nearly happened alike. But seeing her like this brought just as much concern with it.

 _And what about you? Would you be able to kill your own brother? Would... he actually be able to kill you? Would...?  
_

"How was it like?" Chaser suddenly asked into the silence.

"What do you mean?" Specter returned when he was looking forwards again.

"Being what you once were. A... 'human'."

He actually needed some time to think about this. Having spent so much time in the world of dinosaurs made him forget a lot about his past habits, appearance and behavior. Now that he tried to remember them, and saw them in new light, he was surprised how much his view on them differed from before. Or at least how little sense his past life made to him now. Or that it suddenly felt right, thinking about it this way.

"Boring. Every day the same crap. You wake up, you eat, you do your work, have a bit of free time, maybe eat again and then go back to sleep. And then you repeat that until you die. Sure, you live without the fear of being eaten or killed, at least in most parts, but... I guess that just takes the thrill out of your life. You fail to realize how small you are compared to this world. You try to keep telling yourself that you should be humble, that you should be thankful to even be alive, but in the end, you've already forgotten it on the next morning. And then you start doing stupid shit at some point, but none of that really endangers you, so you keep doing it until you can't go anywhere with your life anymore... There is, of course, much more to that but to put it really bluntly, this is a human's life... And I miss my old life but... I'm somehow also glad that I'm here now, that I'm able to see this world... that I'm alive at all."

"And how come you know so much about this world?" Chaser continued to inquire. "You said it yourself, there are no dinosaurs where you're from."

Specter wanted to give his honest answer to that on this occasion. However, because his past, which was now the future, didn't even exist anymore since the extinction asteroid would never hit the earth 'thanks' to Chronos and Logos, he figured that it would also be a lie. Still, there wasn't really a way around telling approximately how it really was. Or rather how it was supposed to be.

"Well... at least no 'real' dinosaurs... and not anymore but... You see, most humans like dinosaurs like you or me because they're big and scary, but fear them just as much. Especially what I am now... and what you always were... for obvious reasons. So they... basically search for what's left of them, mostly their bones, and then they put them together and imagine how the dinosaur whose bones they're looking at must've looked like. And then they... basically... bring them back to life by making documentaries and movies and..." He stopped his sentence right there, as he was certain that Chaser wouldn't be able to understand anything by now. So he tried to simplify it some more. "Uhm... Like... Imagine you could show your sleep stories to everyone... Everyone can see what you saw in your mind, and what you want to show them, and you can show everything you would like... absolutely everything. That's what we call a 'movie'. And there were a lot of those about us. But to be fair, most of the time, you would see dinosaurs killing the humans there and then the humans somehow kill the dinosaurs in return..."

 _Or some oversized, dumb gorilla casually kills whole packs of V-Rexes... Try biting my tongue off or ripping my jaw apart, I would show you who's king, Kong..._ He inserted in his mind, unsure if in jest or honesty. Probably in jest, since this scenario would never happen anyway, though he would've also somehow looked forward to that prospect. This would've certainly proved to be a challenge he could spend his whole life training for.

In the end, he simply had to smile at that thought, too, before continuing his speech.

"But sometimes, both of them can actually help each other to kill an even more dangerous enemy. I liked those scenarios the most, where those two different kinds work together, at least in some way, but maybe that's just me."

"I didn't understand a word of what you just said." Chaser remarked, flashing an amused smirk on the side of his face Specter couldn't see.

Specter wanted to smack his head on the ground at this response, at how abnormal those situations were. How else would he explain what he once was? How else would he explain his fate to someone like Chaser? He found it odd enough that the two-footer was apparently even interested to hear about this, but at the same time, it annoyed him a little bit as well.

"Yeah... I thought so... That's why I prefer to not talk about it too much..."

A while of silence followed from now on, as both predators concentrated on keeping an eye out for their enemies. Specter found that it was a calm, peaceful silence at least, even though he started to realize that Chaser probably only wanted to kill some time with his questions until the inevitable fight arrived. If it would keep the two of them relaxed for now, though, he was fine with that.

But then, far in the distance, Specter suddenly made out some movement. He blinked a few times, double-checked the scenery at least twice, but there was undeniably something. Something that was slowly coming closer. In great numbers.

"I see you've found them." Chaser stated, having easily noticed the sudden change in Specter's scents.

And Specter reacted immediately. He jumped up, climbed on Chaser's back once more, both made themselves as big as they were able to, and analyzed everything from up there.

"Sharpteeth... I don't know of what kind but..."

"How many?" Chaser butted in.

 _5... 10... 15... 20... 25... 30... 35... 40... That's... That's just..._

Specter stopped counting at this point, eyes ripped wide open and mouth fallen agape since the beginning. Not only was this basically an entire army of carnivorous theropods, consisting of a few Carnotaurs with masses of raptors behind them most prominently, but there were also dinosaurs among them he had never seen before. Like with those raptors, it was impossible for him to identify the species from this distance, several kilometers away, but it was more than enough to see that they were all pretty big, dangerous predators.

"Too many... Just... way too many..." He ultimately answered. "Chaser... We can't..."

"Is he... with them?"

Alba's sudden voice from right below to his left side caused Specter to almost fall off his perch. After taking a deep breath, and with great trepidation, he looked down and into her eyes. They were filled with emptiness. It was a look that was just completely unreadable, so much that Specter was very unsure about what kind of an answer she would like to hear now. Would she like to hear that her brother was? Or would she like to hear that he was not? He plainly decided to tell her the truth.

"They're way too far away... But... I'd be lying if I said that he likely isn't..."

Her reaction to this was that she frowned heavily and looked away for a few moments. But just like when Specter told Ruby about the supposed fate of the dinosaurs, he was sure that this kind of honesty was simply necessary in such a situation. That Alba soon restored eye contact and offered a halfway firm nod only supported him in this assumption.

By now, he was also sure that he had seen enough from up where he was, so he lowered himself downwards, patted Chaser on his back and the two-footer laid down for a moment so that Specter was effortlessly able to jump off him.

"What should we do now?" He asked his leader, standing on firm ground again. "There's far too many of them... How...?"

" _We_ are not going to do anything." Chaser responded, sparing a quick smile at him. "From here on, I'll take over."

Specter stared at him in confusion. He would've needed time to digest those words, to understand what they meant. But he should get none, as Alba instantly, and frantically, jumped forwards with wide eyes.

"No! No, I refuse! You can't do this! You can't!"

And it was now, seeing her desperate reaction, that Specter got the full message as well. Unlike Alba, however, he kept silent for now.

"Alba..." Chaser spoke up again, moving towards her and placing a forelimb on her back. "I'm sorry..."

Alba had just enough time to widen her eyes even further.

 **Smack!**

With calculated movement, Chaser had spun around and struck the backside of her head with the tip of his tail. An extremely precise swing, in a way even quite gentle, which instantly knocked her out cold. But before her unconscious body hit the ground, Chaser absorbed her fall with his tail in the same move and slowly laid her on the ground.

"She would never follow this order." Chaser explained his seemingly rash action.

Without even thinking about it, Specter swiftly moved towards her and pressed two of his fingers on her throat. Finding her faint heartbeat, he took a step back and looked back at Chaser, giving him a nod. Still, he wasn't happy at all with what the two-footer planned on doing now.

"You don't have to do this... There's no shame in running... We can retreat, get help... Please... for her sake... don't do this." Specter spoke. His voice was sorrowful, but firm. He couldn't understand why Chaser thought of this sacrifice as necessary, but was determined to honor it or at least hear an actual explanation.

"I know." Chaser said. "That's why I want you two to stay out of this. Return to your pack, to Seeker, and get them to help you. I'm sure he will understand why this must end and why he should help."

"But why can't you come with us?" Specter asked in return, taking a quick look at the oncoming sharpteeth which were now merely three kilometers away at best. "You know you'll die here... Not even you can take on this many at once. So why would you possibly want to stay?"

"Because they still think that somewhere around here lies the entrance to the valley, just like I thought and discovered it here before the Great Divide opened up even further and it got blocked off. This will give you all the time you need. But if all of us leave, they would follow us. You know where at least one open entrance is, and that would eventually enable them to find it. This must not happen, you understand?"

"Does that mean... you're... fighting for the Great Valley?" Specter almost sputtered.

"I am fighting for the sharpteeth." Chaser retorted. "I am fighting for the balance between us and the leaf-eaters. That place still disgusts me, but it would disgust me even more if those bastards took it as their territory. And besides, this is my fight. It always was. So today, I shall fight."

Following that, Chaser gestured for Specter to help him with Alba. The black fastbiter could only nod, laid down on his haunches and let Chaser lay her down his back, injuring her slightly in the process as the two-footer obviously had to use his mouth filled with massive, sharp teeth to pick her up. As he stood up again, Specter groaned mildly under Alba's weight on his back, even though he was way bigger and heavier than her, but eventually found a decently comfortable stance and looked back at Chaser.

"Now go." Chaser spoke again. "There are some paths along those mountains there. They should enable two puny ankle-biters to get away from here."

That Chaser smiled at his own words made Specter shiver slightly. So far, he had been able to suppress his emotions of deep sadness at this upcoming loss but now, he really had to hold back his tears. Yes, this Tyrannosaurus before him was Sharptooth, the predator which had killed so many and almost taken the lives of his friends, but he was also his leader. And most of all, he was his friend.

In light of that, he just couldn't hold back the most important piece of information he knew of which Chaser still did not.

"Chaser... About Seeker... Most of his pack... They are... He is... well... He really is..."

"I know." Chaser spoke again, this time into the distance. "He's that little longneck shit. And all the other fuzzballs of his pack are the ones I wanted to kill. They were changed just like you have been."

"You... You knew?!" Specter exclaimed in shock.

"Of course." Chaser responded, now smiling at Specter's dumbstruck and overwhelmed face. "You asked me if I believed in fate. And I do, to this day. Who else would have had the power to unite the leaf-eaters against my father? What kinds of sharpteeth would've been able to do that, if not a fastbiter and his friends who didn't all hatch as such. Also, from where else would you know leaf-eater from? And most of all, who else could've told you who I am, what I did and how I almost died? I told you, you're horrible at controlling your scents, fuzzball... Just tell me one thing..."

"Anything." Specter answered after a while.

"That incompetent little flyer I let go... What happened to him?"

"Spotter... He risked his own life to find out what exactly your father's plans were, and that he would attack when nobody expected it. Without him, Red Claw would've won... I'm sure of that."

Now Chaser truly let out an honest laugh.

"Be sure to send him my regards then. Seeker, too. And now go already!"

Specter wanted to obey, and he knew that he really couldn't afford to waste any more time here, but he refused to leave just yet. Instead, he ripped out one of his golden crest feathers and offered it to the two-footer, though he never noticed that another fell on the ground with it.

"I've sworn with my blood to fight on your side, whatever the situation. I honor my oaths. So please, take at least a part of me into that battle. Think of me at your side when you rip them to pieces. Give them hell, Chaser, for you are a Tyrannosaurus rex, the king of all dinosaurs!"

Chaser took over the single feather and grasped it tightly in his two clawed fingers. Though he couldn't quite understand this strange name for a species nor what a 'king' or 'hell' were supposed to be, he knew that all three of those things must've meant something powerful in Specter's world. And being honest with himself, he somehow really liked this 'new' name for his kind.

"I will. It was an honor meeting you, Specter. Good hunting."

"The honor is mine, Chaser." Specter responded firmly, remembering to add another one of the many things his pack, especially Chomper, have taught him about this world. "Good hunting, and may your foes fall underfoot."

"My foes will fall, but my friends will stand." Chaser finished.

Specter bowed his head deeply for one last time before his leader, the sharptooth who had taken care, trained and made a competent killer out of him. A sharptooth he would never see again. Then he finally turned around and ran as fast as he could allow himself to run without throwing off the precious cargo he was carrying on his back.

 _You truly are special... and so is she. Make me proud, you two ankle-biters!_ Chaser thought to himself as he observed how the black and white fastbiters disappeared out of his sight. Like light and darkness, those two couldn't have been more different from another indeed. Yet he found that maybe it was exactly because of this why they would make an impact on this world. Because for light to exist, there would have to be darkness. And for darkness to exist, there would have to be light. As it was with all the other things. For the sharpteeth to exist, there would have to be the leaf-eaters. And for the leaf-eaters to exist, there would have to be the sharpteeth. This was the essence of the Great Circle of Life.

Thus, he would fight for both sides today. And whatever his fate would be, he would win for one side.

However, he quickly concluded his cogitations and turned his full attention back to his foes again, those that would soon fall before him. He calmly laid down on his haunches and watched for a while how they came closer and closer, before he closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles. He was very much looking forward to this. Finally, after all these years of unsuccessful searching, hardships and pain, he would have his revenge. Once more, he would squash two buzzers with one stomp.

The time went by and quite soon, he was able to pick up the sounds of those many footsteps coming closer. This prompted him to open his eyes, rise up to his full, menacing height and walk into position.

Soon after, the masses of sharpteeth moved around this big rock formation which had served Chaser and Specter as an important vantage point earlier. Chaser proceeded to scan each of the closest ones to him. There were all different kinds of sharpteeth among them. Most of them were fastbiters, a few were horned sharpteeth, and even fewer were a very strange kind that almost looked similar to a two-footer, just that they were a bit smaller than the horned sharpteeth, had three fingers, colorful feathers and a crest on their snouts. What all of them definitely shared, however, were their feathers. Which was an important fact to Chaser because this meant that Shade wasn't with them here.

In the end, he found that all of them looked rather pathetic. Their combined growling, roaring and screeching didn't impress him in the slightest. And maybe he would've even started taunting them, had there not been the biggest horned sharptooth in their lines. When that sharptooth moved forwards, everything went dead silent.

"Bloodhorn... We meet at least." Chaser snarled to his main target.

"So it seems, Chaser." Bloodhorn responded indifferently. "Where are your little ankle-biter friends? Have they abandoned you as well?"

"If you want to put it that way." Chaser answered in the same manner to this pathetic taunt. "But why would you care? I'm your enemy here."

Bloodhorn let out a laugh at that.

"I couldn't care less about you anymore, one-eye. My business is with that feathered fastbiter of yours. So, I'll give you one chance. Tell me where he is... or die."

"Still that angry about your feeble brothers, huh?" Chaser mocked him further. "However, I fear that I must disappoint you. He is already gone. To where, not even I know."

"In that case..." Bloodhorn growled, turning around to his allies. "Kill him!"

Again, combined sounds of roars and screeches echoes through the ravines behind him as multiple sharpteeth began their attack. Lowering his head close to the ground, Chaser could only smirk.

 **Chomp! Crack!**

He kicked out to his right side while his jaws snapped down on a fastbiter in mid-air. As his teeth and sheer bite force instantly crushed that fastbiter's bones, his kick to the right broke a horned sharptooth's leg. Following that, he threw the dead fastbiter behind himself so that he would follow his horned ally to his death, and both predators fell into the chasm. Then he locked on to his next target, his ears granting him complete 'vision', even to his blind side. He effortlessly ripped apart the smaller sharpteeth with ease, while they were only able to land a few scratches on him at the most.

And after the third wave of attacks, everything was silent once more. Even though he was still outnumbered by an insane margin, none of the enemy sharpteeth dared to attack him. Some even started shaking their heads and laid down on the ground.

"That all you've got?" Chaser asked derisively, licking the blood off his teeth.

Bloodhorn was quaking with anger at this display and thus decided to fight himself now. Before he moved in, he figured that he and Skull would have to change up their disciplinary actions some more. And having concluded this, he went forwards and moved into his combat posture as well.

"Fine. I'll kill you myself then!" He added, and charged ahead.

Chaser swung his tail to the side, his whole, massive body along with it, and tried to knock Bloodhorn into the chasm in the same move. But the horned sharptooth had apparently seen it coming, swiftly changed course and tried to bite into one of his forelimbs. Chaser evaded again, taking a step back this time. This observation was all he ever wanted to see. Now he knew where his brother had learned this move. These moves, actually. This horned sharptooth had indeed a very similar fighting style to the one Rex had once shown. Now he knew who the sharptooth really was who had told his brother all these lies. Sure enough, Shade had told him once that he suspected one of them to be able to talk leaf-eater, but Chaser realized that this must've been just another clever lie. Now he knew better. That still left him wondering a little bit how exactly his brother wasn't able to smell that Bloodhorn was lying, though.

However, this, he would ask Bloodhorn himself. Just before he would kill him. And Bloodhorn even seemed quite willing to grant him that wish, as he recklessly charged at him again.

 **Chomp!**

Chaser had jumped to the right and rammed the smaller sharptooth in the side with his head. But he hadn't stopped there. Just as Bloodhorn had lost balance, Chaser dashed forwards and bit down on his tail.

He raised his head up high, pulling the quite heavy predator upwards, the horned sharptooth helplessly dangling in the air from his own tail, screaming in pain. And then Chaser bit down with his full force.

 **Crack!**

Bloodhorn's screaming intensified by a considerable margin as this disgusting sound of cracking bones and tearing flesh echoed all around. Chaser smirked widely at this, almost half of the horned sharptooth's severed tail between his teeth, while Bloodhorn rolled around on the ground, twitching heavily in agony. Then he threw the piece of meat and bones into the air, bit down once more, cracking it in half, and swallowed it down.

"You almost taste like your brothers, you pathetic little horn-face." He added insult to injury.

But from this point onwards, he was done with his taunts. All the other sharpteeth but a select few individuals were staring at him with wide eyes or already lay on the ground in a display of absolute submission. Now, he would finish this.

So he walked over to Bloodhorn and placed his right foot on his side, keeping him in place and shutting him up with his weight.

"Before I kill you... Tell me just one thing... Are you the one who turned my own brother against me?" Chaser asked in an ice-cold voice.

And this was when things suddenly got illogical. Bloodhorn started laughing. This very same, insane laugh of victory which Rex and that elder threehorn had given him already. Chaser was quaking with anger himself now, his desire to kill that pathetic, horned idiot growing with every breath, but decided to wait for an answer.

That answer should now come.

"Do you... really think that... killing me stops us?! Do you, you pathetic fool?! Do you think... we didn't know about why you came here?! I've got bad news for you, Chaser... thanks to your fastbiter friend... we have found a way! And this ridiculous little biter, Rex, can go...!"

Chaser increased the pressure on Bloodhorn's flank, forcing him to roar in pain, shutting him up after that.

"So you do know him... Just admit it, so I can kill you quickly."

Bloodhorn looked frantically around from his prone position now, searching for anything that would buy him some time. Until he suddenly laid eyes on something, hidden in the shadow of a big rock. His painful expression changed into a smirk after this, despite all this anguish.

"Yeah, I know your brother... Rex... Such a friendly, lively little biter he was! We were even the same age when we met... But Chaser... Think... Think... A sharptooth cannot lie to another sharptooth... or can he?"

Seeing this ever so prominent smile on Bloodhorn's face made Chaser's blood boil. That sharptooth at his mercy was obviously still toying with him, he figured. However, he was telling the truth right now. Not only could he smell that, but he also understood the logic. A sharptooth couldn't lie this blatantly to another sharptooth. Then again, Specter apparently had a mindset which allowed him to control his scents and words very carefully, yet he was quite sure that this changed, feathered fastbiter was an isolated case. The real problem here was, while Bloodhorn sure was long since already an adult, he was nowhere near as old as Chaser. Did he actually manage to turn Rex against him when he was only a youngling himself? That seemed highly unlikely, Chaser deduced, so he decided to just interrogate him further.

"Then who did it?! Who trained both of you?!" He roared in sheer anger now. "Answer me! Tell me his name!"

"Why would I? His name will simply follow you to your death, anyway." Bloodhorn responded, completely satisfied, already preparing for his next move.

 **Shluck!**

Silence.

The outburst of pain in his left leg almost made Chaser fall over to his side. Out of instinct, he jumped away from Bloodhorn and stared at the pointed stick which was deeply buried in his flesh. Then he looked up at the big rock around a threehorn-length to his left. The last thing he saw from there was a dark blue fastbiter with black stripes disappearing behind it.

 **Slam!**

And this little diversion had been all that Bloodhorn needed. While Chaser had averted his gaze from him, the horned predator had swiftly rolled over on his feet, in spite of his heavily disfigured tail charged forwards and rammed the two-footer in the chest with all his power.

Chaser's muscles in his left leg gave in under the pain and he lost balance. His risky positioning should now become his own demise as he stumbled over the edge and fell down into the ravine.

Somewhere in the vast distance, an immensely loud fastbiter scream could be heard. It was the second last thing which reached his ears.

 **Splash!**

Then there was darkness.

Bloodhorn slowly moved towards the edge and stared down into the ravine. Other than the bones of some longneck and the few corpses of his own subordinates, he found nothing.

"You killed him... You killed Sharptooth... Sir...? Shouldn't we check for his body?"

He looked over to his right. All of his allies had moved closer now and most of them stared down into the Great Divide as well. He wanted to break out into laughter once more. This time into a happy, victorious laugh. But instead, he felt rage building up inside of him. The fastbiter whom the voice belonged to was one of those who had actually dared to show submission in front of the enemy. He figured that he should start his new way of leadership right here.

 **Chomp!**

He bit down on that fastbiter's neck and threw her into the chasm as well.

"THEN SEE IF HE'S DEAD!" He screamed after the falling sharptooth.

 **Splash!**

The fastbiter's screams stopped as she hit the surface, and Bloodhorn managed to see her mangled corpse floating on the water after that, quickly drifting away with the current.

This was evidence enough for him. The idiotic two-footer was dead, and now they could attend to their actual goal.

The ache in his severed tail was unbearable, but he kept a straight face as he turned around to Skull, who had indifferently watched this fight from the sidelines. Next to the grey fastbiter stood Shade, sharing this indifferent expression.

"I want... this fuzzball... dead!"

Skull let out an amused chuckle as he very much liked these scents which radiated from his superior, didn't say anything just yet, however. It was Shade who spoke up.

"And I want my sister back." He stated, raised his remaining forelimb and presented a single, golden feather to the other sharpteeth. "And I think we will find them with _this_."

"Pathetic..." Skull finally remarked now, making Shade frown heavily. "His scent from that feather will vanish before you would ever reach him. I have a far better idea..." He then looked at Bloodhorn. "Sir? May I return to the rest now and suggest an option to the boss that would get all of us what we desire?"

"Move..." Bloodhorn just snarled deeply under his heavy panting.

The skull-faced fastbiter smirked for a moment, spun around and darted into the distance with all his speed, while the other sharpteeth quickly assembled again, and everyone headed out to join up with the rest. From this day on, many things would change, Bloodhorn deduced, sparing a look at his tail. He had his mind focused on a new goal for now, and he was quite eager to see what Skull would come up with. Knowing him, he thought to himself, it would be good.

 **End of Act II**

* * *

 **And thus I would like to conclude Chapter 21 and the second act with it. It sure was a heavy piece to write in all kinds of ways, so I hope the outcome is acceptable.  
**

 **Little info on the side: The big, feathered sharpteeth with a crest on their snouts are Yutyrannus. Since LBT14 came out recently (well, just yesterday, actually) I figured this would be quite fitting. As for what the feathered raptors are, I will keep that a secret for now, if you haven't guess it already. :P**

 **Anyway, I hope you liked this installment. If you did, please let me know!**

 **And as always:**

 **Take care, and until next time!**


	23. (Act III) Chapter 22: Friends

**Act III: Nemesis**

 **Chapter 22: Friends**

 ** _"Don't walk in front of me... I may not follow. Don't walk behind me... I may not lead. Walk beside me... just be my friend." - Albert Camus  
_**

 _No... No, no, no, no! Why are they leaving?! Why?! Why are you just leaving, you goddamn fucks?! Stay there and look for your fucking entrance!_ _I... I thought... I thought that..._

Would his throat and resonating chamber not ache so much after having let out that splitting screech of sorrow just a few minutes ago, Specter would probably have yelled his thoughts aloud in his confusion, sadness, anger and horror. But right now he remained dead silent, frozen in his tracks on top of a high plateau with Alba still resting on his back. And he stared down at the big group of sharpteeth who were not caring a single bit about the place where the supposed entrance to the Great Valley was.

 _Chaser... you gave your life for us... but what good did it do? I just... I just don't understand... Why are they leaving like that?_ Specter asked himself once again, this time a bit more composed after having taken a few deep breaths.

His emotions have been turned upside down after all of this. Although he knew from the start that Chaser would die against so many opponents, it had looked like as if the two-footer was actually about to win that battle for the most part, and Specter started to expect him to come out of it alive in the end, which was why he had tried to dismiss the upcoming sight of Chaser's death.

But Chaser had not come out alive. The mighty Sharptooth himself died for some reason. For real, this time. For some inexplicable reason, he had let go of Bloodhorn just as he was about to kill him and then, for some even more inexplicable reason, jumped back from his target, didn't see the horned sharptooth's attack coming anymore, got hit in his chest and fell down into the deep chasm, either dying by having his whole body squashed or breaking most of his bones on the water surface and drowning in the rapid stream down there. Even though Bloodhorn must've weighed close to or slightly above three tons, given his size, a simple headbutt should never have knocked over a seven-ton Tyrannosaurus such as Chaser, this much Specter was certain of. Except, he figured, maybe Chaser knew, too, that he would die sooner or later and rather chose to suicide than to give his aggressors the pleasure to do it. But then again, Specter also knew that a prideful hunter like Chaser would've never gone down like that. He would've fought until his very last drop of blood. He would've fought on even without his limbs, still snapping at his enemies.

Something else must've happened down there, and it angered Specter to the core that he had not seen what. What he had seen, though, impressed him and almost overshadowed his emotions of grief caused by the loss of a leader and friend.

Chaser had killed at least ten predators of all sizes all by himself, and even severely crippled the biggest Carnotaurus, namely Bloodhorn, by biting off a considerable part of his tail. It was quite clear to him that this would get this disgusting, evil leader killed, no matter if he was still alive right now. After all, Carnotaurs were sprinters. Without the full length of a tail at his disposal, even the most menacing predator like Bloodhorn would never run with all his speed or fight with all his agility anymore. And this meant that he would either die on a hunt by the tail, claws or horns of a herbivore, or maybe, and hopefully, by the claws and teeth of his own underlings. His own allies killing him was even the most probable scenario, as Bloodhorn obviously exercised a reign of fear and terror. The best evidence for this was that he had ripped his own brother's arm off, seemingly to rebuke him, and that he had thrown an allied fastbiter down into the ravine in his anger. But now that he was heavily injured, it would make him appear weak, and thus his leadership would slowly crumble. Chaser had seen to that in his last stand. At least his sacrifice was worth something, Specter figured.

Still, he was unable to comprehend all the other things going on in the distance. He could see the 'army' of sharpteeth now slowly moving back southwards, with one fastbiter having already sprinted ahead.

 _This... This is just impossible! They couldn't have known this was a trick! Not even with... with... with Shade...  
_

His eyes widened for just a second as he went over all the time he had spent with the blue raptor, fearing that he had given him too much intel. However, even though he had considered him a good friend right up until last night, he was dead certain that he had not told Shade anything he would regret now.

 _No... I never told him the way to the valley... Neither from where I got in, nor how to get to it... I don't even know the exact way from here myself... if... there even is one... And I'm pretty sure Chaser didn't tell him anything about his emergency plan, either... But...  
_

Specter shook his head to stop his pondering. The clock was ticking now. Chaser's selfless and brave tactic was a failure, if not to the full extent like Specter's own mission had been, but this didn't change the fact that it did not entirely work out like it was planned. And this meant that these few kilometers they had gained on the other sharpteeth so far were the only advantage he and Alba would get to evade them for now.

And there were other things to consider as well. Without an adult Tyrannosaurus being with them, the two Utahraptors' opportunities to get food grew vastly slimmer. Hunting full-grown, healthy Sauropods was completely out of the question, if that hasn't already been the case in the first place, even though Shade had shown that it was apparently somehow possible to kill them without support, and the same went for most Ceratopsians, Stegosaurs, et cetera. Specter was quite confident about his capabilities as a killer by now, yet he rather resorted to hunting smaller prey than making life unnecessarily harsh for himself and Alba. Which in the end meant that he wanted to reach Littlefoot and the others as quickly as possible to avoid spending too much time with searching for suitable targets and risking a potentially fatal injury, wasting any time in general.

 _If there is a decently fast way... it shouldn't take us longer than a few days to reach them... maybe a week at the most... And these idiots down there shouldn't be able to follow us that easily... I will never forget this, Chaser... I promise, I will finish this in your name!_

He finally made up his mind. So he tightened his grasp around Alba's two, limp forelimbs with his hands, spun around and ran off once more with all the speed he was able to build up with such heavy, and also highly precious, cargo on his back.

Never did Specter notice that the two of them have been observed all the time by another Utahraptor from out of the shadows on lower ground.

And that sharptooth's eyes narrowed to slits when he saw this black fastbiter running away, the very same black fastbiter who had stolen a dear sibling from him. But this time, the roles were interchanged. This time, he had the element of surprise. This time, he himself wouldn't run off. The sounds of a pointed object nervously piercing and scratching the ground followed, and then he carefully followed after this unusual duo.

* * *

Only around five minutes of speedy movement had passed when Specter finally noticed that he was quickly running out of stamina. He stopped for a moment, and immediately wished that he could've just fallen into his soft, warm box-spring bed right now, which, of course, didn't exist anymore and never would.

Even though she only weighed around half as much as he did, Alba was just way too heavy for him to carry on his back all the time, and it was now that his lack of sleep unfolded the undesired effects. His legs already felt numb, his head was aching and his whole body seemed unresponsive and sluggish. It certainly seemed like he had reached his limit, despite his undying determination to make things right.

 _Maybe we can rest a bit here... Just for a few hours... I'm sure it won't be..._

He shook his head once more, snapping out of his thoughts, not giving in to his desires. This was neither about himself nor Chaser nor Alba anymore. This was about everyone now. It was about the Great Valley and it was about his original pack. If he couldn't warn them in time of the terrifying danger in these forgotten lands, many lives would be lost. Maybe it wouldn't be tomorrow, maybe it wouldn't even be in the next decade, but someday, those sharpteeth would go after the valley or at least try. They were already immensely strong in numbers, and it was possible that they would gain even more followers as time passed.

No, they needed to be stopped, and he would never sit idle in such a case. So he took a few deep breaths and prepared himself to continue his movement when suddenly, he felt a firm grasp around his own forelimbs.

"Let me down." Came the dead serious command from his supposedly unconscious cargo.

Specter stood there for another while, stunned and in surprise, but soon did as Alba demanded and laid down on his haunches. She swiftly dismounted him, walked a few steps away and looked him straight in his eyes. Specter returned that neutral look, still staying prone on the ground for now. It was clear to him that he needed to confront her right away with the path ahead, and it brought up the questions from earlier on this day, plus some new ones.

Would Alba follow him? Of course, Specter didn't want her to explicitly 'follow' him, but still, would she stay by his side? Or would she, after having lost pretty much everything she ever had in her life, just leave since she saw no use in fighting anymore, even saw no use in living anymore?

He decided to keep silent for now and let her make a decision.

"Where is he?" Alba finally asked. There was a strange tone of hopefulness in her voice, never mind the fact that Specter had not expected her to inquire about who was obviously Chaser first, as he had thought that she would have realized there was no way for him to survive. Though he asked himself why she would not have hoped that he would survive, just like Specter himself had for a few moments, and so he just forced himself to get this out of the way first.

"I'm sorry, Alba... He didn't make it..."

After hearing this, her facial features went through multiple expressions in a matter of seconds. From utter shock, to incomprehensible horror, to burning anger, to blazing hatred, to immense pain, to deep sorrow, to never-ending sadness. The look of sadness was what stayed on her face as she stared at the ground, trying to control herself.

Seeing this, Specter stood up and took a step towards her, intending to offer another sign of comfort. Only for Alba to take one backwards, which made him stop once more. He didn't know what he could possibly tell her anymore to cheer her up, but figured there was simply nothing that could.

"What... now?" She asked again, this faint hopefulness completely vanished from her voice. She only wanted to hear the obvious.

Specter sighed at that. Thinking about this whole task made him realize how hard this whole journey would be and how uncertain the outcome was. But there also wasn't really any other option.

"We will find Seeker and the others. He's the only one I can think of, who would maybe willing to help."

Now Alba restored eye contact, her look being a mix of curiosity and surprise.

"We...?"

Specter felt the urge to laugh, and he probably would have, were the situation not so dire.

"Of course, we. Alba... Do you really think I would leave you alone out here?"

Alba gasped faintly, looking away again. Never in her life has someone unrelated to her made her an offer such as this, to stay with her willingly. While Chaser had been indeed different from all the other sharpteeth she's encountered thus far, she had also long since settled with the chance that the two-footer only tolerated her because he wanted to work together with Shade. Which she had been fine with and never thought too much about, at least until now that he was no more. Specter, however, had no apparent need for her company. There was simply nothing for this fastbiter to gain from her presence, especially considering, and she really had to admit that, he's become quite the fearsome hunter by now, more than fitting to his already menacing appearance.

So, in light of that, she just couldn't hold back her most prominent doubt.

"He ordered you to do so, didn't he?" She questioned, pretty much rhetorically, although she really hoped from the bottom of her heart that this wasn't the case. Maybe she could've lived with this whole relationship being based on an order, but it was clear to her that with Chaser's death, this order had lost all its meaning anyway. Specter just stared at her, unwilling to respond just yet, so she pressed her point even further. "Why else would you care about me?"

Specter's face started to contort at her brutal self-doubts, but immediately softened up again. He could only imagine what her past life must've been like. But that was more than enough, so he really couldn't be angry with her for thinking about herself this poorly.

"You're right, it was his order. Either you or my life." He stated honestly, to which Alba almost flinched. The scents that radiated from her were as painful for him to witness as the expression of fear through her blue eyes, both of which were still looking at the ground, yet he found that he needed to be honest with her to get his actual point across. "And maybe it really was only him, just his simple order, a threat even, which made me aware of that, but... Why would I not care about you? That's what friends do."

"That's what siblings are supposed to do, too..." She commented instantly, in spite of his earnest words. It was as if she'd never heard what he wanted to say and actually did say.

Something in Specter's stomach turned after hearing this, because Alba had a very decisive point there. But he knew they couldn't afford to waste any time with such quarrels, even though they were not unnecessary. He had to wrap this up. He had to get her to openly trust him. But what could he possibly say now against that? Nothing, he decided. Alba had beaten him in his argument. However, there was still something he could do. A gesture. It was the only thing he could think of.

So he carefully stepped forward again, bit down on his right forelimb and reached his slightly bleeding hand out to her.

"If you think I'm only doing this because I've sworn with my blood to be loyal to Chaser, then... let's just make a new vow. Just between us."

It was only when Specter finished his sentence that Alba saw what he planned on doing now. Her eyes widened in shock and she quickly jumped a step back.

"What's wrong...?" Specter carefully asked, though he was seriously taken aback by her reaction to this.

"I... I can't do this... I..." Alba tried to respond. What Specter, of course, didn't know was what she thought to know about herself. However, neither did Alba know what Specter actually knew about her, so she tried to explain what she thought to know. "I just... don't want you... to get what I'm having... this... disease..."

Specter couldn't hold back anymore. He had to chuckle lightly at this innocent, maybe even slightly naive, yet so caring response. Alba gave him an insulted and actually very angry look in response, but he was quick to speak up again. Not before a thought crossed his mind, however.

 _So you still do care a bit about me, don't you?_

"What you're having is not a 'disease', Alba. It's not contagious... I can't get it from your blood."

Alba's jaw dropped. She felt like as if a longneck had whipped her head with its tail. Her whole viewpoint on herself had just been shattered by merely a few growls from this strange, black-feathered fastbiter. She wanted to object firmly. Surely, he was lying somehow. After all, from where could Specter even possibly know about her condition when literally everyone, even her own parents sometimes, had told her that it was a disease, that there was something in her blood which would prevent her from ever forging such bonds, and that there was no way to cure it? But there was one thing that prevented her from doing so. One simple scent which radiated from Specter.

Truth.

She looked down at her hands, noticing that she was shaking. She would've needed time to digest all of this, but rather chose to seize this opportunity right now. For the first time in her life, someone wanted to make friends with her. Someone actually wanted to swear with his blood to this. And that someone has done so much for her already. She would never let that go to waste.

Ultimately, Alba made up her mind. She moved back towards Specter, slowly raised her own, right forelimb and bit down on it, reaching it out to him, too. As the two fastbiters joined their paws, it was Specter who decided to speak up.

"I swear to keep you safe, no matter what. If anything happens, we will shed blood for one another as we have shed blood today."

"So... do I. Give blood... to blood." Alba hesitantly finished, still correctly like last time she had done so. However, last time it was simply out of disbelief how this fuzzball wouldn't know the wording of this precious vow. Last time, she had found him to be pathetic, a burden and a liar. But this time, she finally saw his true self. This time, she had actually made that vow with him.

As her blood mixed with Specter's, she couldn't hold back, either. The one single question she has been asking herself, ever since she witnessed him making that vow with Chaser, came up.

"Just... what... are you?"

Specter wasn't even remotely surprised to hear that question. He actually wondered why Alba had not asked him about his past earlier, though he deduced that it was probably for the better, given that Shade might've known about this then, too, which could've altered everything severely, likely for the worse. Anyhow, he was determined to answer Alba's question in all detail, as he saw no harm in it anymore.

But, since he was still joining paws with her, he decided to use this circumstance to postpone that extensive story.

"That's a very, very long and complicated story... I'll tell you this evening, once we find a place to rest, I promise. But for now, we should keep moving."

Having said that, he let go of Alba's hand and she slowly retracted her forelimb, looking extensively at her slightly bleeding paw. Then she clenched her fingers, looked back up at Specter and nodded firmly. He only returned a satisfied smile, but it was the safest thing he could do right now, he figured.

Following this, the two fastbiters trotted off with moderate pace.

Even though Specter was still tired, growing more and more exhausted actually, he found the current speed to be comfortable and thus decided to not push himself or Alba to go faster. It would be a long journey, and it would also be one that was potentially impossible. What evidence was there that there even was a way to or around the Great Valley, now that the Great Divide had opened up even further?

Looking up at the sky and the sun, he resorted to the most basic logic this time. The way towards the north was completely blocked off for hundreds of kilometers, so they would take the way towards the south first. They would take the same directions he had given to Magno already.

And what Specter had told Magno should be highly important now, too. The reason why he had suggested that the old clubtail should head south first, then west and only then north and east, simply was because those were the directions with the most light. However, since it was afternoon by now, and it was what the inhabitants knew as 'cold time', and Specter and Alba were traveling through a rocky area with loads of mountains to their west, the sun would rather soon disappear behind those cliffs. And this meant that it would soon get dark around this place, preventing Specter from using the sun as his natural compass.

 _Hmm... I should remember drawing a static compass on the ground before we're going to sleep, once we're out of this area and on open ground... That way I have something to go by on the next morning, should we sleep in..._

He concluded his thoughts for now and concentrated fully on the landscape in front of him. But it shouldn't stay that way for long. It was true what he had told Shade once, he really never was a talkative guy, but this silence between him and Alba annoyed him somehow. He just lusted for someone to have a small conversation with, to distract himself and Alba alike from all those horrible things which had happened to them already. He looked over at her, saw how she was firmly looking forwards. He could only catch a glimpse of the current look in her eyes, and it was more than enough to not start talking now. Even though she seemed relaxed, calm and determined herself, there was just something about her that made Specter decide to leave her alone. After all, he would probably give her a headache anyway with all those stories he planned on telling her later on.

So he fell back into his thoughts, pondering a bit about how to formulate everything and also about how he wanted explain all this to Littlefoot and the pack, and to the Great Valley residents. Being most likely on the way, the Great Valley would even be his first planned stop. Surely, after those nice things he had done for some of them, the residents could send a Pteranodon like Volant over to the pack and inform them that he was alive and, at least physically, well. And surely, even after his rash departure, Littlefoot would give him another chance, hopefully even his new albino friend.

However, there were also some other things to consider.

 _They sure wouldn't be happy to hear I have Sharptooth's blood flowing through my veins now... Bron would probably crush me, Topps would impale me, Volant would scratch my eyes out, even Ura would at least slap me for that... But... what about the others? Stern Claw, Spotter, Haven, Finder? Ponder and Path? Even Taunt, Breeze, Leap and Soar? And especially you, Seeker? I'm sure you will understand that Chaser simply had been on a hunt, back then... I think you even told me that you never really hated him for that... it was nothing personal... at least until you pierced his eye out... But... still... he was after the valley... and he killed your mother... And you probably only made peace with him because you thought that you guys killed him... Just like Chaser probably only made peace with you because he knew that he would die... So... I guess... if I was you, Seeker, I probably..._

"WATCH OUT!"

 **Crash!**

Specter had never seen the descending shadow from above coming. And neither had he heard the small pebbles fall while dwelling in his deep thoughts. Had Alba not reacted to those sounds, warned him with her scream and pushed his heavy body out of the way with all her strength merely half a second before the impact, a boulder that was over one and a half meters in diameter would have crushed him to a pulp of blood and innards.

He stared with eyes wide in shock at the rock, panting heavily, but then he swung his head upwards and looked up at the cliff almost right next to them. He could've sworn seeing some movement up there for a split second. But he had little time to analyze this as Alba jumped towards him.

"Are you alright?" She asked under her own, heavy panting and shocked expression, scanning his whole body for any injuries.

"Yeah..." Specter answered hesitantly, sparing another quick look upwards. There was nothing for him to see anymore. He proceeded to quickly sniff the air, but found nothing either. Only the scents of himself, Alba and some dust lay in the slight breeze. And having made sure of that twice, he gave his friend and companion a dear nuzzle. "Thank you... You saved my life."

Alba accepted and returned the gesture, but the fearful and shocked look in her blue eyes remained. Just as she has made her first official friend only a bit earlier on this very same day, she almost lost him again. She was completely out of words now.

"Come on..." Specter spoke up again, realizing her state, putting a forelimb on her back to gently get her to move again. "Let's get away from those cliffs. I'm sure that rock just broke away from up there somehow... No one's here..."

Alba did the same as Specter, scanning the surroundings and sniffing the air profoundly. Just as Specter, she found nothing. With an uneasy mind, she gave him another nod and they returned their movement.

* * *

As the hours passed, the scenery never went through too many changes, even though they had reached lower ground by now. It was still rock after rock, mountain after mountain. None of them had spoken on this trip, which only added to the lifelessness of the environment. But then, finally, there was some flora around once more, albeit no apparent wildlife, though the overall landscape of massive bluffs, many rocks and barren ground didn't disappear.

Both fastbiters' eyes lightened up when they saw the reason for this green. It was something like an oasis, extending only over a few dozen meters, with a nice pool of water right at the center. They wasted no time sprinting up to the pond and drinking their fills, enjoying the clean water to the utmost extent. The constant rain over the past days seemed to have kept this pool filled with fresh water, although it maybe even was connected to an underground water source somehow.

In any event, Specter found this to be the perfect place to spend the evening and night at. He looked westwards and saw how the sun had already long since disappeared behind one of the huge mountains, so he decided to definitely stay here. His fatigue was about to reach his peak, and he still wanted to tell Alba about his past.

When he was finished with drinking, he looked at her. She was already done herself and attentively gazing at him, so he spoke up.

"Alright, I think we should stay here for the rest of this day. Tomorrow, soon as the Bright Circle rises, we can have another drink and then move on." He said, and Alba gave him a confirming nod. "So... I guess you would like to hear about my story now, wouldn't you?"

She nodded again, this time even quite happily. Specter gave her a smile and laid down next to the water, gesturing for her to do the same. When Alba found a relaxed position by his side, he took one last deep breath and started to explain. From the very beginning.

"Ok... So... First, I want you to know again that this is very complicated. There will probably be many things you won't be able to understand, things that won't even make the slightest sense to you. And I don't know what kind of scents you might smell coming from me... I don't know if you might smell the truth, lies, both or nothing at all. Remember when I said I never had fastbiter parents? That was the truth, but not the real truth... so to say. I just need you to trust me, ok, Alba? And I need you to promise me that we will keep this between us. This doesn't really concern anyone else anymore."

Although she tilted her head a bit, she offered a firm nod, followed by a faint, affirming grunt.

"Good, thank you." Specter continued. "You can't believe what a mess I made out of it when I told Seeker and his pack about it... So... Let's start at the very beginning for once... You see, dinosaurs have ruled this planet for an unimaginably long time already. Right now, they have been on this planet for around 170 million years. That is even longer than thousand generations of any of us would ever live, and then the next thousand and the next thousand and so on... And you would think that after such a long time, we would inhabit this world forever. Surely, nothing could bring us down, end our reign over this planet... But there is something that will... Or rather something that was supposed to bring us down... It will not happen anymore now, but where I came from, it did happen..." He paused there shortly. Alba was still looking at him and although she seemed confused by those high numbers, she was listening with all her attention and seemed to have understood most of the rest. So Specter continued. "Around eight years ago, a flying rock was supposed to hit this planet. This flying rock was more or less ten kilometers wide, which might be so, so, so much smaller than some of our territories are... so you might think it wouldn't be dangerous... but it was supposed to hit this planet with such speed that it made a hole in the ground which was 180 kilometers wide. That means eighteen times as large as the flying rock itself. That thing sent waves of fire around the planet, 'invisible fire' as well, burning everything and everyone in its way, and it made dust replace the clouds for over a year. It even lit the sky on fire for some time... The sky was literally burning... But some dinosaurs survived this at first, especially the smaller and more intelligent ones like us fastbiters or those hidden runners. Some managed to hide in caves, for example, and those survived... The real problems came only after the immediate effects. With all this dust in the sky, there was no light from the Bright Circle anymore, no warmth anymore, a cold time that was colder than anything you ever experienced before... And what then happened, you can almost think of yourself, can't you? The plants died, so the leaf-eaters died. The leaf-eaters died, so the sharpteeth died... And yet, some survived. Especially the small, feathered ones that were able to fly, and bellydraggers, because they are cold-blooded, which means they can survive for whole seasons without eating anything. In the end, however, the real dinosaurs, longnecks, threehorns, spiketails, flyers, swimmers, small fastbiters, two-footers, big fastbiters... leaf-eaters and sharpteeth... they all disappeared... they all perished..."

"What... What happened then?" Alba asked, interestedly but also very fearfully, when Specter took a longer pause. All of this seemed like the stuff of a very disturbing sleep story, rather sleep terror, to her, and yet she could also smell that this was not a lie. For some reason, Specter knew what was supposed to happen to the dinosaurs.

"The dinosaurs made way for the mammals." He spoke again. "Mammals are what you know as ground fuzzies, and this flying fuzzy you once brought me. They were very small at first, like they are right now, but took the places the dinosaurs left for them. And as time passed, they grew bigger and bigger, until there were even some sort of 'longneck' fuzzies, just without any fuzz, supposed to be living here. All kinds of creatures suddenly appeared on this planet, but none of them ever came close to a bigger dinosaur in size and appearance anymore. At least not those on land... Anyway, time went on and on, until some rather bizarre creatures appeared. They're called primates. Long arms, long legs, and an incredibly big brain. But it didn't stop only there... And as time went on even further, eventually, the most bizarre creature of anything that ever existed appeared. The human, a creature which surpassed everything that ever existed in plain intelligence. I was once, not even all too long ago, exactly that."

By now, Alba had a completely dumbstruck look on her face as she began to ask herself a highly important question. A question she would save up for later, however.

And Specter realized that she would probably have nothing to say or ask for now, so he decided to shorten his tale. Telling her about his past life was a novel on its own, he figured.

"All the things I know about this world right here, I know from my time as a human. Dinosaurs have always fascinated me, you could almost say I was obsessed with them, but I only ever saw their bones. I mean... Yes, we had 'dinosaurs' living in my time, too, but other than bellydraggers, they looked so much different. They're called birds, almost all of them can fly and only tiny parts of them resemble what we really look like..."

"And... what did _you_ look like?" Alba suddenly asked.

Specter smiled faintly at that. His past life and appearance seemed like a fading shadow to him by now, yet he still remembered the most important parts.

"Well, let's start from the bottom." He said, grabbed one of his feet and briefly went over the soft fat pads under his two toes. He found his new feet to be far more comfortable to use than his old ones, this much he definitely had to admit. "I used to have five toes instead of four on each foot, and my feet looked a lot different. Sure, my legs were roughly the same, but..." He then rose up halfway, using his tail to keep his stance, so that his metatarsal bones touched the ground along with his actual feet. "It was more like this. I had thighs, shins and two feet, but these parts I'm keeping on the ground right now, where my ankles are, although they were much shorter and sort of 'joined' together with my toes, used to be my feet as a human. I'm basically tiptoeing as a fastbiter now, by my old standards, which I actually sometimes did before I had become one. I guess that's why I got used to walking like this rather quickly."

Having said that, Specter proceeded to sit back down and cringed slightly as he did it too fast and his very prominent pubic bone, a common sight with any raptor, hit the ground first.

 _But I will never get used to having this thing sticking out..._ He noted to himself. He shifted a while on his behind, searching for a comfortable position, before he continued to speak.

"Anyway, my legs didn't change all that much. And neither did my arms, though I used to have five fingers, no claws anywhere, and a thumb... which is a big, opposed finger you can use to grab stuff. But yeah... What really changed was my upper and lower body, my head and neck as well... and that I didn't have a tail as a human."

"You didn't have a tail?" Alba almost exclaimed. "How did you manage to walk, then?"

"Well, I used to have a stiff tailbone on my butt. So, I guess you could say I sort of had a tail." Specter said with a smirk. "But it was so tiny that you couldn't see it from the outside. I just didn't need a tail. I was standing and walking upright. Here... take a look at this..."

Specter finally did what he figured he should've done while explaining this to the pack. He scratched two sketches of a male human, one from the front and one from the side, into the ground. Even though he knew he couldn't draw to save his life, rough sketches like this were more than manageable for him.

Alba edged a bit closer to his flank and stared with wide eyes at the drawings on the ground. Not only has she never seen someone doing this, but she obviously had never seen anything remotely looking like this strange creature as well. She kept on staring at the two points of interests on the ground for another while, then she looked up at Specter and saw that he gave her an amused grin.

"I looked frightening, didn't I?" He joked about his horrible drawing skills and past appearance alike. "I can tell you more about this tomorrow, while we're on our way. What's probably more interesting for you to hear is how I got here. How I became a fastbiter... and why I think it was fate that brought me to Seeker and his pack."

Alba didn't know what to say anymore, and she also didn't really want to. Seeker and his pack were living legends, and she had found it highly suspicious that this pack had taken Specter in when it clearly showed that he was anything but a skillful fastbiter. At least until recently. Now, however, it seemed like Seeker himself was somehow connected to Specter, or at least to what Specter planned on telling her now. So she kept as quiet as if she was stalking her prey right now.

"It was a normal night, like any other. I was outside, catching a bit of fresh air when I saw something. It was a flying rock, a very small one. It had a blue glow, and it crashed down right next to where I was standing... I didn't know what it was and why it had this strange glow, so I went ahead and touched it. I wished for something... You know, there were many things I always wanted to see in my life. You could say... that I somehow even wished to experience what a fastbiter's life must've been like... But back then, I wished for something else, yet that strange stone seemed to interpret it like it wanted... It sent me back to this world here, the world of dinosaurs, and made a fastbiter out of me. I woke up right in Seeker's pack's territory, and he was the one who found me just moments later, basically. He thought I was an intruder, so he asked me why I had come there, but I didn't know the answer of course... I must've looked like a complete idiot to him... I couldn't even run away... And he maybe would've killed me, rightfully so, had I not mentioned this one thing. This one thing, which confirmed to me that it was fate."

Alba couldn't hold back anymore at this point. There were numerous options to consider by now, but she found most of them to be utterly stupid and illogical. Not to mention that Specter's past by itself sounded like it was made up by some lunatic. However, she trusted him. His scents might've been strange while telling her this, but she had no reason to doubt him anymore and he had no logical reason to lie to her.

She simply asked ahead.

"What... thing? Why did he not kill you?"

"A fact. Seeker and six other hunters of his pack have touched the same kind of stone that I touched, the same kind of stone with a blue glow, and made the same kind of wish on it that I did."

Alba gasped in shock, completely overwhelmed by this revelation.

"Does... that mean... Seeker... and his pack... they... they were not always fastbiters? They... have been... 'changed'... like you have?"

"Clever girl." Specter remarked openly, not in jest at all. "Yes, you're right. But it gets even better... Maybe you know that Chaser, back then known as Sharptooth, had been defeated by leaf-eater children. Five children, to be exact. A longneck, a threehorn, a swimmer, a spiketail and a flyer. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike and Petrie were their names. These children went on to live in the Great Valley, they already became the stuff of stories amongst the leaf-eaters, and they even made friends with a fastrunner and a little two-footer afterwards, Ruby and Chomper. And they are, except of Chomper, all grown-up now. And yet, they still remained the same, seven friends. Only that they carry different names at this point..."

Alba's eyes already widened as she anticipated what Specter would soon say now, as there was only one thing he could've said now.

 _Seven... Seven friends..._

But when he finally did, her jaw dropped once more.

"They are now known as Seeker, Stern Claw, Haven, Finder, Spotter, Ponder and Path. They are The Seven Hunters."

Seeing how Alba's expression looked anything but healthy or at least normal, Specter decided to stop for now. They still had a long way ahead of them tomorrow and over the next days, and while they would be traveling, he wanted to kill some time by telling her about the other things that mattered, like his trip to the Great Valley.

He was in the process of taking a breath to speak up again when suddenly, Alba talked ahead.

"That's just... insane. It doesn't make any sense... but... but I believe you." She stated, the last part very firmly. Specter gave her a thankful smile, but she was not finished just yet. There was still that question from earlier nagging at her. Now it was time to utter it. "However, there is just something... concerning yourself... even among all this other crazy stuff... that I can't understand... It just doesn't make sense to me..."

"Well, ask ahead." Specter replied. "I'm sure I can find a way to explain."

"You said what was 'supposed' to happen to us won't happen anymore. But you also said that... what you once were... your old kind... they only lived because the dinosaurs died. So... I mean... How... is it possible that you lived, when this flying rock never showed up?"

Specter was completely dumbstruck himself now. What Alba had just asked him was the very same question he has been asking himself ever since he had the last conversation with the 'creators' of the Stone. If the extinction asteroid would never arrive, how was it possible that he had been a human once? There were indeed many theories about time, but his own way of thinking about it was the most logical one.

Time was continuous. It was simply not possible to change the past, at least in his mind. However, if it really was possible to change certain events in the past, the present would be altered with it. Which meant that eight years ago, when Chronos and Logos prevented their superior from destroying Earth, the rainbowfaces had killed mankind. However, Specter arrived here not even three months ago. The facts were clear, but it was a logical fallacy regardless.

"I... honestly don't know." He finally answered. "You have to understand that there are immensely powerful beings out there, some of which have sent me here. And if they can send me back in time, turn me into a fastbiter like that, I'm sure they can easily control certain things somehow, too... But how, why, and all... that is beyond me. But thank you for making me aware of that."

Alba settled with this for now, obviously, as she couldn't understand all too much herself. And she felt a little bit happier that Specter accepted her desire to understand him.

"Alright then... I think we should get some rest now, what do you say?" Specter finished his storytelling for today.

She had to yawn noticeably, being very much tired out as well, and that was enough of a confirmation for him. So he curled up and repositioned himself a little bit so that Alba would have some space, too. She accepted this offer without hesitation and curled up right next to him, snuggling up to his warm feathers.

Specter wondered if he wasn't a little bit too friendly here, but didn't really care in the end. He was just glad that Alba's true personality was apparently just like he had imagined it, or rather how he had hoped it to be. Quiet, highly intelligent, fiercely loyal and immensely skillful as a hunter and fighter. Apart from anyone of his original pack, there truly wasn't a better companion to have for this journey, he deduced.

He had little time to think about that any further, however. The moment he rested his head on the ground and closed his eyes, he instantly fell asleep.

* * *

When Specter opened his eyes again, it was deep in the night. He let out a faint, annoyed sigh and looked up at the cloudy sky first, expecting to find the full moon brightly shining down from somewhere there, but didn't see it. He wanted to wonder what else could've disturbed his deep sleep, but the reason why he had woken up again became apparent to him just the next moment. There was this certain, bodily urge which had woken him and was keeping him awake.

 _Argh, crap! I shouldn't have eaten that last berry...  
_

He decided to quickly get this over with and then return to his peaceful slumber. Alba was still sleeping peacefully and had apparently moved a little bit away from him in her sleep, so that her head wasn't placed on his side anymore, which he was glad about because this enabled him to silently edge away from her, stand up and walk away in his search for a suitable place.

 _Guess I'm pretty much the only one on this planet still doing this... Hmm... wouldn't that make me the first one? Huh... Note to myself, teach dinosaurs some hygiene..._

He trotted around 50 meters away and finally found a suitable place for his 'big business'. He proceeded to dig a small pit with his clawed feet, turned around and relieved himself in it. When he was done, he filled it back up and took a satisfied breath of fresh, clean air.

 _As if that would be so hard for them to do... As much as I like this body, having a cloaca sucks big time... So disgusting to have all my private parts inside my body now... At least they're well protected in there... Oh well, can't help it..._

He actually had to chuckle a bit, thinking about how differently his body now functioned. Anyhow, he felt free and happy now, yet obviously still very tired. And thus, he spun around and was about to head back to his sleeping spot.

That was when suddenly, gentle rustling emerged from the few bushes around. Specter froze in his tracks and looked around, listening into the night.

"Alba...?" He carefully asked.

The rustling continued for just another moment, and then it just as suddenly stopped. With a very uneasy mind now, Specter sniffed the air all around, but other than those of himself and Alba, no other scents lay in the air.

The rustling started again, now moving into another direction, stopping there once more.

"Come on, girl..." Specter stated, highly annoyed, turning towards the sounds. "Yeah, yeah... You got me. I didn't know you're a playful one, but please stop that. I'm really not in the mood now..."

But no one emerged from the bushes. It somehow made Specter angry that Alba was suddenly toying with him like that, as it was one of his most disliked circumstances when someone refused to listen to his polite requests. He decided to simply dismiss her pathetic attempt to scare him and walked back. Having taken merely four steps, he froze in his tracks and a hefty shiver ran down his spine.

Even though his vision was mostly blocked off by some foliage, he could still quite easily make out Alba's snow-white skin in the distance between all this green. He sniffed the air again, only to find the same scents as before. Just that this time, he realized that he had analyzed them too rashly.

 _This strange scent of dust... or soil... It's not... It's the same from before, when that rock fell down... It doesn't... belong here... Oh... Shit!_

 **Shluck!**

Lady Luck must've truly blessed him on his path. The spear had only impaled the ground right between his legs. Completely surprised by this, Specter hastily jumped multiple steps back from the weapon and frantically looked around.

A serious tactical error, not to pick up the spear himself.

The rustling started again, louder than before. And finally, the aggressor revealed himself. It was a male Utahraptor, dark skin over his whole body with a terribly scarred face. The raptor slowly moved closer to his pointed stick, stopped next to it and ripped it out of the ground, preparing himself for another attack. He had to use his right forelimb for that, because his left one was unusable. His piercing yellow eyes were staring right into Specter's soul, and there was this insane gleam in them. There was this fire of hatred burning in them. There was the desire to murder in them.

Although he couldn't pick up his pure scents, Specter knew all too well who that fastbiter was. He had taken his sibling from him. He had stolen a loved one from him in his pathetic attempt to fulfill his so called destiny. He had done him the ultimate wrong to save another life, to get an advantage. He had hoped to never see him again.

"Morso...?!"

And yet, here he was. That red fastbiter was Morso, the one whose brother, Falce, Specter had killed in cold blood in order to prevent Malka from getting eaten. Maybe it had been an act of mercy for the little leaf-eater child, but for a sharptooth, it was just murder.

Morso didn't say anything, giving the only response to Specter saying his name by a few nervous twitches of his head. It was quite clearly discernible for Specter what his rash actions back then had ultimately done to him. His left arm was obviously broken at multiple places, his face, neck and most of his body scarred, and he even had some nasty puncture wounds on his tail and legs. Without his brother, this fastbiter had gone through hell while trying to survive alone, it seemed.

What made this whole situation even worse was that he was wielding a spear. It horrified Specter, but didn't surprise him, as he was quite certain that if someone had killed his own sibling with this crude kind of weapon, he would've never forgotten that image either. And it seemed like Morso had used that recurring image of his impaled brother to craft himself a weapon of his own. His spear looked pathetic to Specter, but this didn't change the fact that it was still a spear. It still was a deadly long-range weapon.

He knew there was no way for him to talk this out. The red fastbiter's eyes were filled with so much hate and anger that Specter could almost feel the pain from Morso's stare. And normally, he would've been quite confident to kill him in this upcoming fight. However, he had never stood on the receiving end of a spear. There was that one time with Chronos, sure, but that was an entirely different situation. Back then, he had a spear of his own. This time, he had not. This time, he was on the wrong end. He had a serious disadvantage.

And this was all the time Specter should get to analyze the situation as Morso charged at him, his spear raised. Specter jumped backwards, then sidewards, then to the other side in an attempt to evade the weapon. However, Morso never jumped for his attacks. He never stopped his momentum. He just kept on charging at him, always violently stabbing the air with his pointed stick.

Specter knew he would have to command the pace of this engagement, it was the most basic tactic of winning a fight and just one of the many things he has learned so far, but this was indeed hard to do.

But he had to do it. So he stopped shortly and watched how the red fastbiter charged at him again. Only five meters away, he saw him preparing his weapon for a fatal blow.

 **Slice! Slice!**

Almost simultaneously, Specter dashed forwards, evaded and lashed out with his claws, and sliced a deep cut into Morso's neck. However, Morso had not made a full mistake. Though his spear missed Specter's throat, its sharp tip grazed his neck and cut a minor wound in it, too, ripping out a few of his feathers. Both of them slithered across the ground, came to a stop and contorted their respective faces at those wounds.

Morso's next charge came instantly.

 **Screech!**

He didn't reach his target this time. Alba came jumping out of the shadows and rammed into his side, her weight and momentum throwing Morso away but not over. However, this was already enough as he lost grip of his pointed stick and it got flung away into the bushes.

In spite of this, the red fastbiter's eyes were still emotionless, dead, and he was still prepared to kill. The next attack in his rage was directed at Alba, as she was the closest target.

The female had the same look in her blue eyes, this look of anger. A look that communicated that she was determined to kill.

 **Chomp!**

Alba outmatched Morso's speed considerably, and so she had dashed forwards herself, feigned to jump and went for the side instead, biting down on her target's neck. She bit down with all her force, making the red fastbiter screech and gurgle in pain, but it was not enough to kill him. So she pulled her head upwards.

 **Shluck!**

And just like that, it was over. Specter had reacted accordingly to this 'invitation' and kicked at Morso's exposed throat, his massive sickle claw almost ripping through the red Utahraptor's spine.

Time seemed to freeze as the three fastbiters maintained this deadly embrace, the only movement coming from the rivers of blood running down Morso's neck.

"Murderer..." Morso spoke to Specter, spewing some blood on the black fastbiter's chest while doing so.

Specter grimaced, feeling another urge building up inside of him, the urge to cut this red fastbiter's head off, should he say one more word.

But Morso should not. His eyes rolled upwards and his whole body went limp. Only now, Specter ripped his killing claw out and Alba let go of his neck, and he fell to the ground, becoming a disfigured corpse in a pool of his own blood.

In what seemed to be hours, days, weeks, months, years even, Specter kept on staring at Morso's body. He was shaking all over his own body and there was an anger inside of him he had never felt before. Hatred. This hatred for himself. This dead fastbiter in front of his blood-smeared feet was his creation.

"Who... was that?" Alba broke the silence, very carefully.

"A monster..." Specter responded in a cold monotone. "A monster that I have created..."

Alba looked down at the corpse and frowned as she now grew aware of all those other injuries on it. She knew perfectly well that Specter and this dead fastbiter had met once, and she would've really liked to hear about that 'meeting', but definitely kept her mouth shut for now.

"You saved me again..." Specter continued in his deadpanned voice. "You shouldn't have... You should've let him kill me..."

Alba wanted to return something, but didn't manage to do so. This self-hatred which Specter now showed was something she just couldn't comprehend, and it actually reminded her a lot of herself. One thing she was certain of, however. Whatever Specter had done to that sharptooth, he must've had a good reason for it.

And Specter followed the same line of thinking, yet he denied himself that justification. From a sharptooth's point of view, he had done the wrong thing. He had committed murder. Maybe not now, but certainly around a month ago. Had he thought clearly, back then, he would've just used his frightening appearance to scare the two brothers away. But he had not thought clearly. He had acted rash, and almost paid the price in the end. He found it to be true what people from his time used to say, even in the world of dinosaurs.

You always meet twice.

Not saying any other word, Specter turned around and went back towards his sleeping spot. Seeing this, Alba's expression turned into compassion and she quickly followed after him. She waited until the massive fastbiter had curled up on his spot before she laid down right next to him again, and snuggled up to him once more.

"It wasn't your fault..."

"Maybe..." Was all that Specter answered.

Came the next moment, his fatigue completely took over and shut down his eyelids, forcing him to fall into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

 **Alright, finally got to finish this installment!  
**

 **Took me quite a while to get back into the flow, but once I did, it went rather smoothly. Thus I hope the outcome is acceptable! :)**

 **Anyway, I will have some more work to do over the upcoming week, but then I will have some more free time to allocate to my writing. So, if you liked this chapter, please do let me know as I highly appreciate it!**

 **And as always,**

 **Take care, and until next time!**


	24. Chapter 23: Mistakes

**Chapter 23: Mistakes**

 ** _"Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes." - Oscar Wilde  
_**

A calm and peaceful night ended for Specter. No nightmares, no doubts and no regrets had troubled him in his sleep. Somehow, he even wished that at least one memory of the two Utahraptors he had killed would have appeared in his mind, just to remind him of his massive wrongdoing, just to remind him of their past looks when they were still alive and well, just to remind him that he should have acted differently.

But it had not appeared. And it frightened him. It frightened him because he had honestly expected that to happen.

Instead, he accepted it. He knew that there was simply no other way now. He wasn't able to change what he had done. He accepted his false behavior and was determined to move on, learn from his mistake and draw experience from it, like he has always done before. To have no regrets was something people in his old life would often tell, but it was in moments like these when Specter truly understood how immensely hard this actually was. Especially when it involved killing. And in this case it had not even been for food, which would've been the sole explanation that could have made the situation back then a just cause for him. Or rather for the supposedly merciless carnivore he was now. While the kill on Morso last night was justified in every way, simply because it had been self-defense, the kill on Falce was murder.

Still, he felt no regrets, even now that he went over the ghastly confrontation once more. Not minor and definitely not major, maddening ones. There were simply too many other things to consider. Had he let the two fastbiters kill Malka without any intervention, he most likely would never have gotten into the Great Valley. Had he tried to take on both of them, the chances for him to come out alive would've been fifty-fifty, if even that. Morso and Falce would've either ran away or killed him, considering his inexperience at that point. His sheer size and appearance, and his spear of course, would've certainly played him in his cards, but the brothers still had the advantage in numbers at that point.

So, in the end, he just felt sorry for the two brothers whose lives he had destroyed, mostly inadvertently. Especially for Morso, whose slow, emotional death and torment had lasted for at least a month, it seemed. At least Falce's death had been extremely quick in comparison.

"Hey... Feeling a bit better now?"

Specter slowly opened his right eye and looked into Alba's left, who had her head rested right next to his own.

"Yeah... a bit." He answered honestly.

After that, he stood up together with her and stretched his limbs for a while before taking a few sips of fresh water from the pond. When Alba was done with this, too, Specter nodded for her to follow after him and the two fastbiters moved towards the rather prominent scents from not too far away, the scents of flesh and blood. A bit horrifyingly to Specter at least, those were also the scents of breakfast.

They quickly arrived at Morso's corpse, which was still covered in his dried blood and the sandy dirt from the northern area he had used to mask his scents, and deep silence surrounded them. It was clear to Specter that he would have to explain to Alba what he had done to that red fastbiter and his brother, but just as much that both of them must've been quite hungry at this point. Which, normally, would've left them with the most obvious thing to do now.

However, first, Specter wanted to explain.

"I take it you would like to hear where I've met him before and why he wanted to kill me, huh?" He asked, seeing how Alba was simply looking at him deciding to elaborate quickly. He just wanted to get this over with and by now, he could already imagine how his friend would react to that revelation. But he desperately wanted to get this off his chest. He turned his attention back to the dead raptor, unable to look Alba in the eyes right now, before speaking up again. "Alright... Please just try to let me explain, ok...? See, when I arrived here, in this time, I knew pretty much nothing. Of course I knew about the basics of hunting and what I would need to do to survive now... I knew how fastbiters moved and what they did to kill... for the most part, at least, and even that not exactly with this kind of body... but still... I was as helpless as a youngling compared to an actual, adult fastbiter, unable to understand what had just happened to me. And yet, I instantly had this goal in my mind... I didn't even know why... It was just... _there_ , you know? There was just something in my mind pressing me to get back to where I had come from, even though I always wanted to see this world myself and was so excited to finally be here, this world where dinosaurs are still alive... So... when Seeker found me, I brought that up and he mentioned the rainbowfaces, two dinosaurs living in the Great Valley. He told me they were immensely smart, he even called them 'star people', so I figured they must've been not really supposed to be living here amongst all the other dinosaurs, just like I am not really supposed to be living here... And the moment he told me that, I had this urge to meet them... But of course, I would never have survived the trip without training, so Seeker and his pack trained me for a while... until the night I left them." He sighed a bit at this point, wondering exactly why he had even felt this desire to travel to the Great Valley and undo things. At this point, though, this was already clear to him. The creatures which had sent him here probably did that, subconsciously implanting this will to talk to the rainbowfaces by giving him disturbing nightmares. For what reason, he could only guess. "I actually made it to the valley by the next midday... And that was when I heard someone screaming for help... It was a leaf-eater child, together with a few other children from the valley... and two fastbiters. One of them was this one here, Morso..." Specter took another pause and pointed at the corpse in front of his still bloody feet. "The other was his brother, Falce... I couldn't think clearly, back then... I was afraid that they would kill me if I took them on by myself... But... I had a weapon. A spear, a pointed stick, similar to the stick which Morso here almost killed me with last night... I just... I just threw it. It hit his brother in his side and killed him in one blow, and Morso ran away... I didn't even feel bad for him... He disgusted me for trying to kill a little swimmer... I hated both of them for what they had planned on doing to her... Two adult fastbiters going after such a small leaf-eater... She would've not even really filled their stomachs... I didn't care for how long they had not eaten before... I didn't know the feeling of real hunger, and I quite honestly still don't... I didn't feel like I was a fastbiter, too... I was so ignorant and stupid... But... in the end, in a way, this little swimmer enabled me to get into the Great Valley and meet those rainbowfaces... They told me this big flying rock would never appear, as they have already prevented it from coming down... Without saving that child's life, I would have kept on living like I had been back then, thinking that I could still save my old kind by disappearing from this world... without even realizing why I wanted to do so... And come to think of it... I would never have met you, either... Still... It's just... I... I should have... I just want you to know... that... Please don't..."

It was at this point that Specter decided to not speak any further and await a reaction instead. He was out of words and thus figured that he would have no reasonable way to justify his actions in front of Alba anyway, and begging for mercy would surely only made him appear pathetic again.

So he waited. The seconds passed, but no reaction came. He was beginning to grow more uneasy than he already was, as Alba's scents went through multiple changes, in the end becoming almost emotionless and neutral. Maybe she was still digesting this, he deduced, but something should've come from her by now. Shock, anger, confusion, sadness. Something. Anything.

Until Specter couldn't take that silence anymore and looked at her, gave her a look which communicated that it really pained him to talk about this topic and that he was ready for her harsh verdict. This one quick glance, meeting her blue-eyed stare, however, made him wish that he had never told her all of this, or that he had at least tried to lie or 'alter' the truth. He looked back at Morso's corpse, lowered his head, closed his eyes and swallowed the ever so swiftly growing lump in his throat, still waiting for Alba to tell him that she would never want to see him again and that he was nothing but a murderer.

And then Alba finally reacted. She moved a bit closer to his side and took a deep breath.

"Did I ever tell you about my first hunt?"

Specter opened his eyes and instantly gave her his full attention. He was certainly taken aback by this sudden change in topic, especially how calm and reminiscent her words sounded. But whatever she wanted to tell him, it must've been of importance, he thought to himself, though he couldn't understand how this would be related to his actions.

"No... You never told me anything about yourself, to be honest."

Alba actually had to flash a faint smile at those words from Specter, in spite of the graveness of this whole conversation. And now that she quickly thought about them, she made herself aware once more of how special this big fastbiter was and how lucky she was to be able to call herself his friend. After all, he was the only thing she had left in her life, and he didn't even know anything about her. What normal sharptooth would ever stick around in such a case?

"Then the first thing you will know about me, will also be the worst..." She started, looking into the vast distance, towards the rising Bright Circle of this nice day. While she wasn't able to see Specter's surprised, even a little bit shocked expression, she was determined to tell him about this experience of hers, as it was certainly similar to his own mistake, at the very least rivaled it. She let out a sigh before continuing. "Shade is the only one who survived from our parents' first clutch of eggs. From their second, it was Gleam, Nex and myself... I hatched latest, almost three days after the others, and needed help to get out of my egg because I was so weak... As we grew up, Shade was the only one to always look after me. Maybe it was because he never saw me as competition for leadership, but... I never really cared. I was happy to have someone beside my parents who would look after and help me. Gleam and Nex, though... They always mocked me because I never was a match for them... Even though I was bigger, I never had a chance... They even tried to kill me several times when we were only hatchlings... We were only juveniles when they already hunted by themselves sometimes, together with Shade... They already began forming a pack of their own while I was left standing by myself... I was always alone in that regard... I always had to settle with the leftovers, I was never allowed to have the first bite... Nobody ever gifted me anything... My parents often told me that it would be better if I waited some more to be ready for this world, but I simply couldn't at some point... I just had enough of all this... I knew their instincts were making my brother and sister act like this towards me, just like I can finally see now that the same happened to you when we first met, but still... I wanted to show them that I was capable... that I was not a burden... that I was not... Anyway, on one night, mother and father separated a threehorn youngling from her parents... I went after her. Of course she saw me instantly, even in that dark night, because of... well... how I look like... She saw me wherever I went, she ran with all her speed, but I caught her easily, jumped on her back... and pierced her throat with one strike." Alba stopped there and looked up at Specter. The black fastbiter was giving her a look which communicated interest and awe, but just as much confusion. And so she decided to get to the dark point of this tale. "I missed my target. She didn't die instantly... she just couldn't move or scream anymore... But I was so excited about my first own kill that I... I started eating her... I ripped her apart, piece by piece... I only noticed that the threehorn was still alive when I finally noticed her heartbeat... And I just stood there... I stood there and did nothing... When my parents came back after a while, she was dead. They congratulated me... said they were proud of me... They never noticed... and I've never told anyone, not even Shade..."

Dead silence embraced the two fastbiters, the only sounds coming from the slight breeze, rustling of the bushes all around, and the occasional Pteranodont, Cearadactylus, or some birds in the distance.

Specter was completely overwhelmed and out of words by Alba's story. He could almost feel the pain and suffering which that hunt had caused her through her words, let alone through her scents. And then there was the little fact that he was apparently the first one to ever hear about this as well. Although he was aware that eating their prey alive was not all too uncommon for predators, and he reminded himself that he had almost done the same to a certain swimmer once in his obsession to get a few children to safety, he knew just as much that such an experience must've been truly traumatic for Alba, considering she was a sentient being. At the very least, it must have damaged her confidence as a capable killer.

But even more so it overwhelmed him with surprise, having seen her hunt over the past month and comparing that to her alleged past. He found that she was a killer second to none in her own niche, similar to but also different from Shade's or most other fastbiters' hunting styles, and although it were indeed rather disgusting thoughts to have, even as a carnivore, he enjoyed watching her hunt and kill. The precision and speed with which she dispatched her targets truly was something else. And even if she never intended to do so, her kills showed some form of mercy most of the time, the will to end her target's life quickly.

Right now, though, he just wanted to comfort and thank her at the same time for opening herself up like this to him. But before he could do something, it was Alba who spoke up once more.

"Everyone makes mistakes, it's what we learn from, you know that, but... the two of us are especially messed up, aren't we?"

"You make it sound like as if that would be a bad thing." Specter responded, and he had to hold back the forming grin on his face. As bizarre as it was, talking about the gravest of topics always managed to lift his mood and bring him back to his senses. That Alba seemed to understand and accept his mistake only added to that. He found that her own mistake with the threehorn was indeed extremely disgusting, certainly when looking at it from his past point of view, but it was just another one of those things that were never intended to happen. And so his viewpoint on her didn't change in the slightest. If anything, it got even better.

Alba kept a mostly neutral face, giving her opinion to that statement by nipping one of Specter's arm feathers. This forced him to lose his slight grin for a moment as he really wasn't fully used yet to how painful it could be to have one of his true feathers pulled on. It certainly hurt more than when he still had hair, he deduced. Nevertheless, he felt happy and relieved again, if only for this moment.

"Thank you... for understanding." He then concluded this discussion, giving her a short, grateful bow of his head.

However, as soon as Specter was done with that, Alba wasted no time getting to the second point on the agenda of this morning.

"Always. So... what do we do with him now?"

And just like that, Specter's mood darkened. It wasn't like he was unhappy, but rather extremely uncomfortable with being asked of this upcoming decision. He had, however, already pondered that situation earlier, so he was able to give his instant, determined answer.

"You're free to do what you want, of course. You must be hungry, so am I, and he is food now... But I will absolutely not eat him." He stated firmly. Even though Alba didn't seem taken aback, she looked a bit confused and surprised, so he explained his problem. "I don't care what he wanted to do to me... He is one of my kind. He's a fastbiter. I know, this is so selfish again... it's a waste of flesh and soon the life of another leaf-eater... but I just cannot do this... I cannot eat my own species."

"Then I will not, either." Alba answered. Although she didn't exactly like eating her own kind, and had in fact never done that, she also couldn't deny that there was a meal right under their noses. A meal which would probably not taste very good and one that she would never ever actively hunt unless she was starving, but it just so happened that it had died and was now lying there. Though, she figured that Specter's harsh resistance against this way of sating his hunger must've had something to do with what he was before somehow becoming a fastbiter, and so she would stay passive and honor his decision, even if that meant enduring her growing hunger for a while more. The two of them would find something to eat on their way, anyway. Still, she was aware that there was something else on the black fastbiter's mind. Why else would he have taken her to the corpse? So she continued with expressing that thought. "But you have something on your mind, don't you?"

"Thanks for understanding... again. I'm sure we can find some food once we're on lower ground, later. I'll make it up to you then." Specter said humbly and confirmed Alba's line of thinking. "And yes, I have... If you don't mind, I would like you to help me dig a hole, big enough for his body."

"Why?" Alba now asked in honest confusion.

"You will see..."

Having said that, Specter stepped over Morso's corpse in his search for a suitable place where the ground was softest. It took him around a minute to find it and he immediately began clawing away at the ground with his forelimbs, throwing dirt and dust through his legs and behind himself. Alba didn't understand at all what the purpose of this was, but soon joined and helped him regardless.

With both of them working together, it only took a few minutes until the hole was deep and long enough for an adult Utahraptor to fit into, at least one of Morso's size.

"Alright, this will do. Let me handle the rest, ok? I'm responsible for this, after all..."

Alba obeyed, walked away from the hole and laid down on her haunches, curiously watching how Specter ran around and started gathering a few rocks. He found fifteen of those, ranging from medium to large ones which only such a big fastbiter was able to lift, piled them up next to the hole and then slowly went over to the dead fastbiter. Very gently and carefully, Specter rolled the corpse into the hole, adjusted its twisted limbs to more normal positions, closed its eyelids, covered it up with the rocks and finally threw all the dirt back on it, closing the hole and almost making it look like as if nothing had ever happened here, were it not for the obvious sight of freshly dug up earth and all the blood on the ground.

 _This thing with the eyes... same as with the leaf-eaters... But why this fastbiter? Why with someone who tried to kill you? And why put him in the ground?_

She wanted to stand up and ask him about this strange behavior but Specter was not done just yet, it seemed. The black fastbiter looked around and disappeared between the bushes for a few moments, and when he stepped back into the clearing he had this strange thing in his hands, this pointed stick. It was only now that Alba saw this kind of a weapon in all detail for the first time, and she figured that it would probably prove to be quite the effective thing to kill prey with. After all, this stick had rendered Specter completely unable to get a fatal attack in on his much smaller aggressor.

But then her eyes widened as Specter's facial features took on a highly angered look.

 **Crack!**

He suddenly raised the stick, together with one of his legs, held it sideways and then rammed it below himself, breaking it in half on his knee. Now she began asking herself why he would've possibly done that, as this stick would've surely made life quite a bit easier for them, but couldn't come to a logical conclusion. She remembered seeing that he collected similar sticks now and then a few days ago, and this combined with what he had told her earlier could have only meant that Specter was one of a select few sharpteeth who had experience with those weapons.

To Specter, however, his actions were very much clear. Because this was exactly what he has always been utterly afraid of from the moment on he had seen that Littlefoot's pack knew about spears, to have one of his own creations pointing back at him someday, and it was the exact same reason why he preferred to not share the things he knew about various tools and weapons with this world. Just like Chronos and Logos had never really intended to share their knowledge about spears with Petrie, so he had heard from the pack, for the same, obvious reasons.

And there was yet something else.

 _It's always the same... It always comes back someday and bites you in the arse... I should've known... The spear I've forgotten in the forest... That was what got you killed, wasn't it, Chaser?_ _ _T-Rex or Sauropod, a spear to the leg is always good enough..._ And it was you, Shade... I know it was you, you fucking piece of shit... I swear, we will meet again... Everyone does... And then I will make you pay...  
_

His thoughts were on fire but his discernible emotions mostly controlled. He has kept this possibility in mind since yesterday, but it was only now that he felt a spear in his claws again that it made sense to him. Shade must've found his semi-finished weapon close to the sheltering rock and used it to distract Chaser from Bloodhorn. It was the only explanation that was completely logical.

Though, it wasn't even because of all those circumstances why he had chosen to destroy Morso's interpretation of this weapon.

There was, of course, no possibility that dinosaurs would ever invent guns, bombs, or anything like that, neither did Specter know how to make them nor did the materials for such things exist in pure form, but spears were already extremely advanced for this time, way _too_ advanced for already heavily armed dinosaurs such as Utahraptors, and even though they certainly made life a lot easier for the hunter, it was only a matter of time before the hunted would adapt, at least those that did possess working hands. Yesterday night, Specter himself had become the hunted, even by a much smaller hunter, and would it not have been for Alba, he would have had a hole in his throat or chest now, and it would've been him to lie in his own blood.

In light of that, he decided to not use or show them off, at least while being in the lands they were in right now.

 _I seriously need to have a talk with Seeker about this, and with Chronos and Logos as well... We need to make sure this stays a secret. You've told me what happened to this other pack that had discovered this Orange Death stuff, Seeker, and I assume you wouldn't want to have your own sticks being used against you and your friends... It happened once already and only your vine armor saved you... And besides... if Shade has told his new allies about that, we're all screwed hard... There's only so much this 'armor' can do... So, Shade... let's hope you were dumb enough for once to dismiss how powerful these things can be...  
_

He finally concluded his thoughts, threw one end of the broken spear back into the bushes and inserted the pointed one into Morso's grave, a prehistoric tombstone. When he was done with this, he took another moment to sort out his thoughts and feelings.

 _ _Sorry for what I did to you and your brother. That's all I can offer now... And t_ hank you, for showing me that there is a way back... I guess... we were somehow meant to meet again... Rest in peace now..._

Specter raised his head again and only now noticed that Alba was already standing by his side.

"What do you call this?" She asked.

"A burial." He answered in a deadpan tone. "This is something I would normally only endure for a close friend, but... I felt like I had to make an exception here."

"How so?" Alba inquired further.

"Several reasons. Personal reasons... But the important one? Well... as much as I despise that bastard... I'm afraid there's one thing Bloodhorn's seriously doing right." Specter spoke again, letting out a drained sigh before finishing with this signature line from the horned sharptooth leader. "We can't afford to give them any evidence of our presence. At least not something this obvious... No traces."

That final part made Alba shiver noticeably. The last time she had heard this was when she almost got violated by one of those horned sharpteeth, after all, but now that she thought about it and listened to Specter's reasoning, it really was true what he was saying. For now, they couldn't afford to leave any traces behind. It was less of a problem with leaf-eaters as they would eat them, but something different with sharpteeth. An uneaten fastbiter with an unusually big hole from an unusually big sickle claw in his throat certainly was something only a genius or lunatic would connect to herself and especially to Specter, but the enemy sharpteeth probably had one of those among them. And when it came to Shade, Alba didn't even know which of those two types he would be to her now. Maybe he would even be both.

In the end, she simply nodded and followed after Specter, back towards the little pond. Both of them drank their fills and washed the stains of blood off their bodies. After that, Specter made sure to erase his little 'sketch' of a human from the ground before ultimately joining Alba's side again, and both fastbiters resumed their moderately fast trot from yesterday, traveling southwards with a clear destination in mind.

At least Specter had this destination in mind, the Great Valley. It would definitely be on the way, considering Morso had made it here, and a complete waste of time not to stop there and quickly inform the important residents. Especially Chronos and Logos were his desired targets for a conversation. The two rainbowfaces had to be informed that he was still alive and that there was a new danger on the horizon, but most of all, Specter just had to ask them about his own existence. He finally had a clear mind and was very eager to hear how it was logically possible for himself to be alive as a human and now as a Utahraptor at the same time. Also, maybe they even knew what this mysterious species was, this highly advanced species that was responsible for his new life and of which one entity had talked to him in his dreams a few times.

For now, however, he was interested if Alba understood the things he had tried to explain to her on the last day.

"So... I hope I've made sense to you for the most part. I know this is complicated and hard to believe, but I'm glad you're trying to follow. I really am. Are you still interested to hear a bit more?"

"Sure!" Alba answered quite excitedly, though her voice didn't give too much of her actual excitement away. She had yet to get used to showing her full range of emotions again. The years she had spent with Shade and Chaser changed her, not to mention the years before that, this much she was aware of.

"I hope you're in for a headache then. This will certainly take a while..." Specter said with a smile. "First, though... Do you have any questions so far?"

"Too many." She stated honestly. "But... about that 'thing' you scratched into the ground... Were you really that small?"

Specter let out a light chuckle, though he tried to shut himself up quickly so as to not insult her. For just a second, he had wondered why it wouldn't have been clear to Alba that his drawing obviously didn't represent his past self life-sized, but came the next second he understood why. Because the only mammals in this time were tiny rodents like that Volaticotherium she had gifted him once, petty critters, half as big as the shortest finger on his hand. Even the biggest mammals around were way smaller than his 60cm tall pet dog had been, who coincidentally matched a Velociraptor in size, more or less. Of course Alba wouldn't know much about the sizes that various mammals were supposed to have in the future.

"No, not at all. Humans were actually very big when you consider that nothing in my time ever grew as massive as even the smallest of adult longnecks. The biggest creature on land was the African elephant. It was as tall as a big threehorn and quite a bit smaller than a two-footer like Chaser, and obviously also shorter. Which is still big, sure, but after that, things got smaller very quickly, and I'd say humans were also way bigger than most of the other 'fuzzies' on land. Though you have to keep in mind that I was quite a bit taller than most normal humans, and since I used to walk upright and didn't have a tail, height was everything I had going." He proceeded to put his hand on Alba's back and then slowly went down until he was pointing at the place on her body he estimated to be 10cm below her back line. "I was around this tall, which actually made me taller than the casual fastbiter of our kind. Hmm... Seeker would've matched me in height if I was still a human, so I guess you will have something to go by once you meet him... He is one of the biggest sharpteeth of his pack, but I guess that's because he used to be a longneck... Anyway, thing is, I was very, very light for my size. Even though humans could potentially weigh quite a lot if they trained really hard to build up muscles, and mammals in general weighed a lot because their bones are not hollow, I was always pretty damn lazy and thus skinny. Ever seen those fastbiters that are more or less half as tall as you are? I only weighed as much as those."

"Hm..." Alba mused faintly, still in the process of trying to imagine such truly bizarre creatures without anything to go by. As she did so, the questions which would probably get her a lot simpler answers came up. "And were you a sharptooth or a flattooth?"

"Both, actually. I had a few 'sharp' teeth but also flat ones, and I used to eat meat, fruits and green food. So, pretty much everything except carrion." Specter answered once more. He could see that Alba already prepared herself to ask the next question, and he very much knew what the question would be. So he quickly continued. "However, I will get to that later. Food is where it gets really, really complicated with humans."

Alba sighed audibly. Of course the black fastbiter just had to shatter her expectations on that matter, too. If even something like hunting his food had been so complicated for Specter, how much more complicated would all the other things get, she asked herself. Still, she really wanted to know more, so she figured that it would be best to start from the point where the dinosaurs were supposedly all going to die.

"I see..." She spoke up. "And what about how those fuzzies came to be? You said it would be cold, dark and everything after that flying rock hit... and if all the dinosaurs died from that... how did the fuzzies... 'mammals'... make it through?"

"There are many reasons for that." Specter said, and Alba sighed again, which made him smile for a moment. He realized by now that she was trying to hear about the easier things first so that she would have some sort of a framework in her mind. Nothing was easy when talking about evolution and technology, however, at least to a dinosaur, but how the mammals made it through the dinosaur extinction wasn't all that difficult to simplify. So, Specter did exactly that. "I'll try to make it simple. Mammals are small right now, so they don't need a lot of food. But as they grew bigger that changed, of course. However, some more of those very cold times followed. They're called ice ages, and they're pretty damn horrible for everyone. I think the circumstance which helped the mammals to survive the most was that they don't lay eggs. Female mammals are giving birth to their children, which means that the children are coming out of their mothers and are instantly alive."

Alba contorted her face in disgust at this response, though it didn't even surprise her too much. She had never seen ground fuzzy eggs so she knew that those little creatures had a different method of bringing their children into the world, but hearing from Specter, who once was a mammal himself after all, that they really did it this way honestly disturbed her.

And Specter had experienced the same reaction of disgust from Littlefoot already, which he could quite frankly understand as he found the practice of giving birth rather disgusting himself, but he had yet to mention the most important difference to dinosaurs when it came to bringing new life into this world. Which he wanted to do now.

"I know, I know. It really is disgusting." He went further with a slight smile on his face, which disappeared as soon as he continued. "The females are in a lot of pain and it's pretty bloody. My mother even had to be cut open to give birth to me. But it's just as effective. Eggs are way too vulnerable. You have to sit on them until they hatch and can't do much else in that time, and every little thing can break them and kill the child. Not to mention that bigger dinosaurs like longnecks, threehorns or two-footers can't protect them like fastbiters can. Mammals don't have that problem. The females carry their children inside their bodies until they are born, some can even hunt and live a normal life, and as long as the female doesn't get heavily injured, all of her children will live, most of the time. And that's not all..."

Alba's facial expression had normalized again and although she kept silent for now, she was giving Specter a highly interested look as she asked herself what else could be coming.

Specter noticed this and wanted to get to the point, yet shifted uneasily as he thought about how to put it.

"You see... mammals have a... uhm... 'different'... mating behavior than most dinosaurs." He started very coyly. This was pretty much still 'man talk' to him, even though he knew that females from this time, females in general, really, shouldn't be excluded from such discussions. So he made up his mind, deciding to tell Alba.

 _Ah, fuck it! She's an adult. No need to sugarcoat this..._

But he also decided to keep it simple and especially to leave out any cuss words. Again, the reason for his choice of words was because Alba was a female, but Specter was fine with at least that little etiquette when it came to polite talk.

"Alright... See, generally, dinosaurs are monogamous. That means they take one mate for the mating season, some, like fastbiters, even for life, and only have children with him or her. Quite 'romantic', but it is actually very risky and probably another reason why all the real dinosaurs died in that cold time. Mammals on the other hand... Well, they're polygamous for the overwhelming part. It's all about size, basic looks, and in general, the males basically mate with all the females they can get to make as many children as possible. Some of those ground fuzzy males even have some sort of a... 'mating spree', in which they, once they're adults and their bodies are ready for it, mate with as many females as they can on the same day before painfully dying out of exhaustion in the night after. So... yeah... That's mammals for you."

To say that Alba was dumbstruck would not have done her look any justice, but she was rather quick to speak up, though not very firmly.

"Oh..." She said while looking at the ground. "So... when you were still a human... you...?"

Specter had to chuckle at this again, as he was far too aware of what she was getting at. However, this was yet another topic he has never spoken about with anyone. The reason for this was because it always damaged his confidence when thinking about it, but he figured that it didn't really matter at this point.

"No, I didn't." He responded. "Even that is complicated with humans because they don't have those instincts. They always have a choice, when, where and with whom to get together. It's not always about who's the best looking or strongest but I can't deny that looks and strength certainly made up a big part, though that strength didn't have to be that of your body. And when it came to myself... Well, let's just say I really wasn't all that popular with females."

"Why not?" Alba asked in curious surprise. "Didn't you say you were big and all? Isn't that what females would've liked?"

"Yeah, some did... some others not. But even though I was big, I was also lanky and average looking at best. Just like I am now as a fastbiter, given my colors. Not to mention that I was quite the rude asshole, disliked children because I think human babies are the ugliest things ever and so damn retarded until they become adolescents, and didn't really want a relationship just to have one. I guess I used to already be a dinosaur in that regard, telling myself that I would find the right female for life later on..." And it was at this point that Specter sighed sadly and looked up at the sky for a moment. "Made leaving my old life behind a lot easier but it seriously annoys me in retrospect... Now I will never find that female... Guess it just wasn't meant to be..."

"Was... that what you meant when you asked me about the two sides of the Night Circle? I thought you said you would like it here... So what makes you think that?"

"Tell me something. And if you answer me that question, I will answer yours." Specter responded. "Imagine you wake up as a fuzzy tomorrow. Your body is not what it used to be, neither how you move around nor your basic needs, and everything you desired is gone. Would you be interested in male fuzzies just like that? 'Interested' as in, would you mate with them?"

Alba tried to give an answer but didn't dare to do so. She also wanted to comment on some of Specter's statements but kept silent on that matter as well. Everything he was saying was right, as much as she disliked to admit it. She wanted to tell him that he wasn't average looking, let alone ugly, but he really was not especially attractive with his mostly black feathers and dark grey skin. She also wanted to tell him that she would quickly try to adapt to the life of a mammal in such an unrealistic case, but again, this would not have been her honest opinion. The truth was that she would need years to cope with such a drastic change, and Specter would probably need that time, too.

"Thought so..." Specter commented on her silence. "Everyone of Seeker's pack managed to get together with others, and I really respect them for that. Seeker used to be a longneck and his mate, Ponder, a fastrunner. Stern Claw used to be a threehorn and her mate, Taunt, hatched as a fastbiter. Same goes for Haven and Finder, and even Spotter in some way. I can only imagine how strange that must've been for them... but they were at least dinosaurs before. I wasn't. I am used to extreme sexual dimorphism... something I might get to later... But for now, let's talk about something else, shall we? My personal life really isn't all that interesting."

Alba offered a nod at this, as it was easily discernible that Specter really wanted to shift this conversation away from the current topics. And since she was obviously interested in all the other things as well, she was fine with that for now.

"Alright, good. Hmm... Let's see... How about I tell you about the most important discovery of humans? The one with which they conquered the world..."

* * *

 **Several hours later:**

"... and that is why we're actually called Utahraptors. Kinda morbid, but it was the easiest way to give our kind its name. Though it still makes me wonder why so very few of us have feathers..."

Alba had already long since lost count of how many times her jaw dropped in the time Specter kept on telling his tale. Of course she had expected everything that he knew to be difficult to understand, but nowhere near _that_ difficult. Specter had drifted off to other topics so often that it felt like as if he knew about absolutely everything.

From how this world was actually so much bigger than anyone could have ever imagined, that the reason why there was life even on those other 'continents' was because there used to be this 'supercontinent' called 'Pangea' before it split apart in multiple pieces, to the little fact that Specter's old kind actually went to the Night Circle. Even though there was supposedly no air on it, and just like the 'planet' they were standing on as well as the Bright Circle, which was actually a star, it was not a 'circle' but rather a ball, humans had stood up there. This was apparently why Specter knew about both sides of it. All of this because of that one discovery humans had made. The greatest ever. The one with which they successfully conquered the world.

Fire. Control, command and use of fire. So simple, and yet so incomprehensibly innovative.

And there was even more. He had told her that he was actually living on another continent before his change, 'Europe', which looked so much different from the one they were living on now, 'America'. But both of those continents would drastically change in looks and climate as time passed. Right now, there were various kinds of dinosaurs living on each, never mind the other continents of which Specter himself wasn't even entirely sure how exactly they looked like at this point.

Then he had went even further. How his world had looked, smelled and felt like, only to name the basic few things. That the favorite 'dinosaur descendants' from his time had been 'crows' and 'ravens', so called 'corvids', because they were immensely intelligent, not as small as most other 'birds' and just overall really beautiful and majestic with their pitch black feathers. That he had been able to move with up to three times her fastest speed in his 'car'.

 _"Combustion engines. Those were the sounds of power I know. Rotary engines, screams of horror and yet so beautiful to listen to. Twelve or ten cylinders, piercing shrieks of pure strength and speed. Eight cylinders, a mighty, deafening roar, fitting to a two-footer. Six cylinders, a dangerous growl like a fastbiter's. Four cylinders, pretty much a harmless purr, were it not for the angry hiss of the supercharger and then high-pitched sizzle of the turbocharger that I had in mine. You put your foot down, pedal to the metal, and you experience true speed and freedom... Loved it. I miss my car..._ _ _Uhm... You... didn't understand a thing, did you?_ "_

 _"No... not really... But I'm trying to imagine it."_

 _"Hm... Good enough, I guess."_

That he had been able to fly in a different looking 'car', a 'plane', which he frequently used to visit other 'countries' with.

 _"And the only thing better than driving was flying... The force pressing you into your seat as you ascend into the skies... And you could travel around the whole earth within a day. It doesn't get much better than that. Even a flyer would be amazed."_

Even more, incomprehensible stuff about this 'technology' should follow. Communication, information and so on and so forth. But then, sometime later, more details on his past appearance and that Specter himself actually had 'white skin' as well, though it was apparently a bit different in color than her own.

 _"Really...? You... had that, too? And others were fine with it?"_

 _"Well... actually... No, I didn't have it. I told you this is hard to explain... You see, the first real humans all had dark brown skin, and black or at least dark hair. As they migrated to different parts of this earth, their skin, hair and eyes changed in looks, too. But that has mostly to do with genetics and mutations. That I had blond hair was actually caused by one little change in my genes, the components... things... which our bodies are made of. That you have your skin color, blue eyes and white claws, however, was caused by a change of another part in your genes, though it still has to do with melanin. Melanin is responsible for color, and the more melanin you have in your body, the darker it becomes. At least with the skin and hair of humans, but it's very similar with all the other creatures that exist, including us. I have a lot of it now, and you have basically none. It's called albinism... but really, what does it matter? It's not a disease and you cannot infect anyone with it. If anything, it makes you..."_

 _"But I want to know where it comes from! Nobody else in my family had it!"_

 _"Not quite... Your father, Alba. Let me guess, he had light grey skin and some parts of him were white in color."_

 _"How... How do you know that?!"_

 _"Shade once told me that he looks exactly like your mother did, while none of your siblings apparently looked close to your father. And that means there's a good chance that your father had this genetic disorder, just that he only had it partially. Hence his special and yet still normal look... compared to other dinosaurs at least. Which was lucky for you because I'd say your mother would never have mated with him otherwise, or stayed together with him, as harsh as this might sound."_

 _"I... But... How...?"_

 _"It's alright, don't bother your head about this now. I'll try to think about an easier way to explain that, but later, ok?"_

 _"Yeah... ok."_

It was the first time in her life that Alba honestly felt stupid. Because of maybe half the things she made an effort to understand, she understood only half, and _actually_ understood to the fullest half of _those_ , even though Specter had emphasized again and again that she obviously didn't need to know all of that to survive, meaning that not knowing them would not make her less intelligent. Alba regained her confidence after this, but immediately after, Specter had said that he himself was anything but an overly smart guy by his standards, he just had a broad 'common knowledge', which caused her to lose that confidence again, at least doubt herself once more.

However, dismissing all those things she 'didn't need to know to survive', there was one statement Specter made somewhere at the start which had made Alba truly shiver once more.

 _"You know... If I had another shot at all this with a clear mind... If I could go back to the point where I have woken up in the pack's territory... I would not try to save them again. Definitely not with my life."_

She had been deeply shocked that he would refuse to save what he called 'mankind' once more, his own species, were he given his own choice. But it had taken Specter merely a few more sentences later on to make her change her mind again.

Eating meat without hunting, drinking water without finding a watering hole, sleeping in warmth and comfort every single night and living a life in safety. All those things certainly sounded like a nice change to her, but soon as Specter had told her how the majority of the food was kept and slaughtered, how the water was most often stolen and the earth exploited, how advanced warmth and comfort had to be created with energy and thus indirectly harmed the earth once more, how a life in safety definitely was not the case for everyone, Alba almost felt the urge to vomit. She had thought that it couldn't get any worse, but Specter should prove her otherwise yet again. He had quite effectively used his own, massive body for size comparisons as well.

 _"Too many methods to kill, to destroy, to murder. Lies, deceit, oppression, racism, hate, greed, envy, propaganda..._ _ _Some of those things don't even exist yet..._ You cannot compare that with anything from here, from anywhere on this earth. But the ones you can... Well, just look at those clubtails. Scary things, right? No sharptooth would ever manage to kill a larger clubtail without support and then tipping it over on its back... Yeah, because they're what you call 'armored'. And humans? Not so much, so they just made their own. There was such armor for their bodies, but also something far more destructive... Take me, for example. Take my height and length. Now make me as fast as you can sprint, as heavy as ten two-footers, as resilient as five huge clubtails and give me an attack that punches a hole straight through a longneck... and then you have a main battle tank. Where I'm from, they even named most of those after other predators. There was nothing so amazing to look and yet so utterly, utterly horrifying than a tank."_

Far too many surreal things to comprehend for Alba. Far too many things that didn't even make this slightest sense to her. Again. And yet she believed Specter and never questioned his words. It wasn't even her sense of smell which made her do that but rather because she figured that Specter's knowledge was so illogical to her that it had to be real. He may have been crazy, but not crazy enough to just imagine those things. Especially considering that however crazy those things might've been, they somehow seemed logical in a twisted way. Though the scents of honesty, a combination of multiple scents which ranged from calmness to joy or even anger, from Specter certainly helped Alba in believing him yet again.

But of all the things that followed, one word has been stuck in her mind ever since.

 _"And this... this destruction with a magnitude that is beyond thinking... a battle where everyone loses... this is what you call 'war'..."_

It was a concept which lay completely beyond her, but the effects were certainly not. Death, destruction, pain and suffering were feelings not unknown even to a dinosaur. The difference was in the numbers of lives lost, so Specter had told her. And since those numbers were approaching or even surpassing the incredibly big ones Specter always used to measure time with, namely 'millions', Alba ultimately understood Specter's dry way of thinking. Though he emphasized many times that the overwhelming majority of humans had actually been good beings at heart, friendly creatures which were able to forge friendships even with other species and use their incredible intelligence to heal almost any type of injury while still being able to be the most cunning and merciless hunters ever, their leaders far too often were not. They were far too many times riven by greed and the desire for power, ultimately causing everyone together with this whole planet called 'Earth' upcoming destruction. The society in which they lived in often was not, either, and apparently forced them to be selfish and heartless very frequently.

And in light of that, Specter had even spoken the same, disgusting words which Shade once uttered.

 _"I know, I must seem like a monster for saying this... I am a monster. Everyone is, he has a point there... Maybe I'm just the worst monster of all... but humans can be even worse. They never learned from their mistakes. History repeated itself again and again. Every time the same, stupid mistakes... It is probably the hardest decision I've ever made for myself, to be thinking about it this way, but... t_ _ _rust me, it's for the best that they will never exist now._ It's for the good of all."_

But this was also where the 'bad' things which Specter wanted to mention had ended. The rest had been way easier for Alba to grasp, for example how Seeker and his pack looked like as leaf-eaters, what they were before their changes and how they now looked as sharpteeth.

 _"So they all kept their colors? At least they were left with something then... But why didn't you? Why are you so big, and why do you have grey skin and black... 'feathers' now?"_

 _"My size, probably to keep me alive and out of minor problems with other sharpteeth. What kind of idiot would try to attack me without decent support? As for the rest... Well, I kept my hair color through my crest feathers, though they're much brighter and more colorful now because we have the eyes for that. But really... Imagine I still had my old, white skin with matching feathers over the rest of my body. I'm not a pretty boy now, but that would've made me look like an absolute piece of... Uhh... no offense, of course! I call it white skin but it's really more like..."_

 _"It's... alright. I get what you mean..."_

 _"Uhm... good. But yeah... I mean... I guess it's because I liked black as a color, and I used to own many things looking like that. Looks modest and yet very elegant in my opinion. Not to mention that it camouflages you quite nicely in the darkness."_

After this, the pack's past adventures as leaf-eaters. How they found the Great Valley, how they made more friends, what happened after they got turned into sharpteeth and separated from all of those friends again, one even forever by killing him in their hunger basically right at the start, how they actually defeated Red Claw and how they have trained Specter.

 _"He actually forced you to do that? Why would Seeker use this dirty tactic?"_

 _"To his defense, I basically forced him to go hard on me, first. And it worked out, I'd say. I was much more confident on my feet and with my body after that encounter."_

 _"Yes, maybe, but still... My parents once told me about this tactic... What he did to you is something you would use to expose a traitor..."_

 _"I know... Path implied that, too, when we discussed this. But I would never be angry with Seeker because of that... It was a bizarre situation for both of us. I think he believed my every word until I couldn't keep my big mouth shut and tested this 'thing' on him... that I'm able to control my scents if I concentrate really, really hard. It was quite funny seeing the legendary Seeker so dumbstruck... well, I didn't know he was such a good guy until much later, but... I guess he just wanted to see if I really was a good guy, too. Or maybe he just messed up his evasive move, who even knows. Never talked with him about that again... But anyway, I'm not doing it anymore, controlling my scents this much, and that's how it will stay. My personal secret. It would cause so much more trouble if anyone else but me would know about it..."_

Following this, that Seeker's pack was the only pack of sharpteeth able to use different methods of communication. Which meant that leaf-eaters did in fact have a language.

 _"What?! But... But how?! Shade... He... He told me so often that they could not talk... I can't believe this! How could I not smell that he was lying?"_

 _"Because he probably was not. Sharpteeth can still lie, though, Alba. Our bodies are only giving away those scents if we really know the truth and yet claim otherwise. But we can still lie without other sharpteeth smelling it. It's not even that hard if you know how to do it. Not telling the truth doesn't mean lying at the same time. 'I never had fastbiter parents'. Remember? Of course I had parents, just that they were never fastbiters. It wasn't a lie. And now think about it. Did Shade ever explicitly tell you that leaf-eaters are unable to talk?"_

 _"No... he didn't... He always told me... No, he always asked me if I... honestly believed that they could talk..."_

 _"And there you have it. He told me himself that he knew about that, even though he doesn't speak leaf-eater himself. So naturally, he couldn't tell you outright that they couldn't talk. It would've been a lie. But by asking you this question, you started questioning yourself and thus believed in some sort of a hidden message. Chaser was right, Shade is dangerous with his words... extremely dangerous... I understood that far too late... It's fucked up, it really is, which is why I don't want you to trust me only because of my scents. I want you to trust and believe me because you feel like it's the right thing to do. Listen to your heart, however idiotic that might sound. Everything can be deceiving, but your heart cannot be deceived. And there is another way to lie, a really horrible one that I have used before to get what I wanted from a two-footer asshole, but that's the personal secret I've told you about and it will stay that way. For now, at least. Though, 'belief' is the key word there... and you need a mind as messed up as mine..."_

As for the rest, Alba was now also informed of human females in all detail, too many details for her own liking, and what Specter had been, probably still was, interested in when it came to that. She found this so called 'sexual dimorphism' to be quite disgusting as, in her mind, it heavily disadvantaged the females in so many ways, but Specter had once again made sure to enunciate that this was simply nature's way of handling things. Human females apparently just had different roles in which they excelled, in which they outmatched the majority of males, like doing multiple things at the same time.

Still, it definitely proved to be true what Specter had warned her about. Alba really had a headache by now.

"... but at least all the fastbiter children in Seeker's pack do have them, so I guess all it took was time... and seven friends, making a wish."

Specter took one of the deepest breaths he had ever taken in both of his lives, finally finishing his storytelling. Finally, he had informed Alba of pretty much everything she needed and has wanted to know. He had basically blabbered for five hours straight at this point, even in the time he and Alba spent with resting in between. They had crossed a lot of uneven land with narrow pathways and blocked off trails, to the point where he started wondering if they would ever make it out of those mountains. But they have indeed, as Specter was now able to see the tip of the huge, destroyed volcano, the Smoking Mountain, in the distance behind some other mountains. This was the place where his actual, new life with a clear mind and soul has started.

Soon, he would finally be there again to look at that scenery of death and destruction he had caused, this time without the dust. And yet he was somehow even looking forward to it. Not only because he would've liked to know how many innocents had died there but rather, and far more importantly now, if there were some remains of his enemies left. He already had a hunch what kind of raptors he would be up against, as not many raptors ever grew as big as Utahraptors, but a few of their skeletons would certainly give him some real evidence.

However, it would not be today. The sun was still moderately high in the sky, bathing the dusty landscape into warm, orange lighting, but it was slowly getting dark regardless. It was time for some well-deserved rest. But of course, first, it was time for a hunt. The last time he and Alba have eaten something was over 30 hours ago, and he already felt the burning desires to stalk, to chase and to kill. Once more, the last part would be the hardest and just another test of his perseverance. And like always, he would cope with it. He simply had to.

So he stopped his movement together with Alba and looked at her, which she returned. The female was standing at a comfortable distance to his left side and seemed to be looking forward to hearing what he had to say next, whatever it might've been. Curiously enough, she has left Specter wondering if he shouldn't maybe 'extend' his distance to her to avoid sending the wrong signals, as she, at one point, came so close to him that she was basically hugging his flank. But Specter has quickly realized why she did that, simply to use his huge body as cover and stay in his shadow. It has been a very nice, clear day thus far, and even the winter sun that was only for a few hours high in the sky could've been harmful to an albino like her in that time, after all.

"Alright then..." Specter spoke up in a raspy voice. "I guess it's about time for us to eat, drink and find a place to stay for the night. So, how about I find us some food while you search for water and a safe place?"

Alba didn't respond outright. It was only when Specter noticed that the look in her eyes changed from happy anticipation to a mix of confusion and surprise that he realized what he had just implied and cringed heavily at his own words. He already began formulating an extensive apology in his mind.

 _Not because you're a female, of course! It's just that I can use my size to kill and even carry larger food, while you can use your speed to find water and shelter faster than I could. And I would like to make the lack of food up to you, just like I promised. That doesn't mean I'm better than you at any of this because I'm a male. Please, do say it if you have a better plan. I will listen. Rest assured, I am not..._

But he should not get the chance to utter any of that.

"Understood." Alba finally responded firmly, spun around and darted away. Though she certainly was taken aback by Specter's plan and the fact that he wanted to do the hunting alone, she didn't care about any implications as she found her task to be relaxing and reasonable. Maybe she would get the chance to help him out if she was quick enough, she figured.

It took merely five seconds for Specter to lose sight of Alba as she disappeared behind a big boulder. He let out a partly happy, partly exhausted and partly concerned sigh at this. He was happy because she obviously trusted him by now and obeyed even such almost insulting words, exhausted because a solitary hunt would evidently be much harder, and concerned because he didn't want her to obey him like that.

 _We're a team, not leader and subordinate. I'm sure I can still learn many things from you... Definitely need to have a word with her about this._

Ultimately, though, Specter deduced that this has been the most reasonable decision to make. It would save a lot of time and make the rest of the day rather smooth indeed. And although he disliked that thought, he had to admit that he definitely was the better ambush predator of the two, given that he was so large and heavy, had the bigger claws and teeth and probably even had the better sense of smell. For these lands with narrow passages and lots of cover, he was the best suited. Alba on the other hand was the better pursuit predator, scout and sentry, given her immense speed and agility. She was best suited for open ground without cover, as her looks made her easily visible anyway.

 _Next time, I'll still ask you then. Maybe we can take turns? We're both suited for those jobs and you have way more experience, after all..._

He concluded his thoughts and focused on the upcoming hunt, sniffing the air all around before heading eastwards. Some new scents of Hadrosaurs lay in the air, and Specter was very, very keen on finding out what exactly they were. What he was definitely sure of was that he would be able to kill even an adult of their kind by himself, assuming he could force the fight to be a one on one, and that it would provide a filling meal.

* * *

 **Well... this one certainly took me quite a while, and I apologize for the long delay. However, I will get to the reasons for that in the next chapter, which I will be posting within the next few days, most likely before Monday.**

 **For now, I hope you enjoyed this one, and as always:**

 **Take care, and have a nice day!**


	25. Chapter 24: Forgiveness

**Chapter 24: Forgiveness**

 ** _"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Mahatma Gandhi  
_**

After approximately ten minutes of movement, Specter laid eyes on his targets. A small herd of medium-sized leaf-eaters with five adults and five juveniles, 50 meters away from him and unaware of his presence as of yet. The adults were around 250cm tall and 7m long each, making Specter actually bigger than them, and their children more or less half their respective parents' sizes, so around as big as the average, subadult Utahraptor, at least in height.

 _Hmm... Very distinctive snout... Those are Altirhinuses. That's good... Only two real claws... They're not dangerous to me unless I screw up hard and have all of them against me. I should ambush them, then separate one of the adults and kill it. An adult Alti weighs around 100 kilos more than I do, so I won't be able to carry it that easily... but I should be able to call out for her later so that she knows I've got something to eat. Alright then... Now I just need to wait a bit..._

Having analyzed the situation, he would proceed with the usual conduct now. Observe, single out the weakest or most vulnerable target, wait for an opening, ambush, give chase if necessary, and kill. A line of thinking he has never needed any real training for. That was The Law of the Jungle, natural to every living being which had the remote desire to hunt, including humans. Though Specter figured that it certainly helped that he always possessed an interest in hunting and had once planned to go on a real hunt when he was still a human. However, as it was most often the case, the devil was in the tiniest of details here, and especially Littlefoot has taught him pretty much everything he ever needed to know. Had it not been for his first raptor friend's training and extensive explanations, even on his very first day in this time, he would likely have left more than one of his targets suffering terribly, or he would've simply been fatally injured long since.

But that also included the advice to search for smaller and younger prey, should he ever hunt alone for some reason. An advice which Specter has accepted and embraced since over a month already. So he knew very well that it would've been easier to kill one of the juveniles, but also that they wouldn't provide as much meat, so he ruled them out as his targets solely because of this. Even though he could smell another child somewhere around, a sixth one which also belonged to the same herd, he was determined to risk going after an adult in this case, as he would have liked to have some spare meat for the next morning so that he and Alba would be able to cover more ground on full stomachs.

A riskier hunt now, no hunt at all tomorrow. This was Specter's motivation and something he has often taken part in already, for example whenever he helped in taking down Sauropods. It was no secret that carnivores generally liked building up a healthy supply of food, even Littlefoot's pack who were all extremely respectful when it came to killing and usually only hunted when necessary.

And so he laid down on his haunches next to a big boulder, hiding in its shadow, waiting for the right moment. The leaf-eaters were busy with eating the few plants on the ground, conversing about unimportant things to Specter, thus he figured that they were very relaxed and feeling safe. Which made it likely that one of them would soon head off to find more food. He used the time to analyze them a bit more, but found nothing of additional significance. All of them were healthy and showed no signs of blatant injuries, which made him simultaneously happy and annoyed.

Fifteen minutes later, the right moment finally seemed to have come. A male had apparently spotted some more sources of food and wasted no time leaving its herd to get to them.

 _Alright... Just a little bit more... 15 to 20 meters away from the others should do to split them if I'm fast enough... Hmm... He's quite a bit older than the rest, alone, no children, no mate. Maybe just a random member who joined recently... a distant friend at best, considering how he didn't talk much or was never asked anything... I don't think they'll risk their lives for him... And I guess... the children can keep their parents as well if I take him out... Yeah, you'll be it... You'll have to die for us..._

His target had reached the desired position by now, testing out the new food it has found. Specter kept observing the leaf-eater for a while more until he was certain that it would be completely distracted. Then he took a few deep breaths and prepared himself for a quick sprint, his heartbeat already accelerating. He slowly rose to his full height, readying his legs and claws...

 **"Sharptooth! Run!"**

...when suddenly, this new voice echoed through the lands from somewhere. A voice that belonged neither to the Altirhinuses nor to anyone he knew, and it carried a rather strange tone, almost as if this creature didn't want to save the small herd at all. There was no fear, anger or surprise in that voice, reactions which any leaf-eater he has ever met always showed to some extent. If anything, this voice carried indifference.

But Specter had no time to think this through. Because as that happened, as this yell cut the peaceful silence apart, his target flinched in shock and ran back to the herd, all the other leaf-eaters in panic by now and frantically looking around.

 _Shit! Who the fuck was that?!_

Specter nervously checked his surroundings, too, but snapped out of it within a single second. His cover was blown now, his foolproof plan ruined. Now he simply had to hope for the best, for a little mistake from those leaf-eaters in a direct confrontation. First, however, he had to act, show himself to them. And he had to do it fast.

Which he did. He dashed towards the herd, reaching them in less than four seconds. But the leaf-eaters had quickly spotted him and formed a line, keeping the children in cover. He made himself as big as he managed to, puffed out his feathers, extended his forelimbs and growled angrily at them, flashing all of his sharp teeth while trying to stare down every single one, hoping that at some point, one Altirhinus would snap and break formation so that he could safely pounce. Since this was not part of his original plan anymore, he also didn't care anymore if it would be a parent he would take down.

However, the leaf-eaters didn't give in to that display, yet neither attacked nor ran. Though they were all pretty much shaking with fear at his sight, a Utahraptor that stood taller than the casual Hadrosaur, none of them intended to let him get an attack in without punishing him for it severely. They may have had only two actual 'thumb' claws on the insides of their forelimbs, but that would be enough to rip his throat open if he wasn't extremely careful, this much Specter knew.

 _They're not running... They're afraid... but still refusing to retreat... They're already protecting their children... So why won't they back off? Is it because...?  
_

He discontinued his thoughts for a moment, deciding to listen to their words. As he did so, he stalled them by doing faint attacks. Which worked out with extreme effectiveness. Every step he took forwards was answered with a step backwards from each leaf-eater, every step to the left with steps to the right. They mirrored his every move to shield their precious offspring, not realizing that they were all playing him in his cards. Because he had complete control over their movement, thus maintaining his superiority and confidence, once more commanding the pace of the engagement.

"We must go! Now!" One of the leaf-eater males exclaimed, the oldest one, Specter's original target.

"No! Never! Not without...!" A female, by far the most scared and desperate one, tried to answer.

"Don't be foolish! He is already dead!" Another female angrily shot back.

"No, he is not! He's back there, around those big rocks, I know that! We just need to fend off this damn fastbiter!"

"There is no time!" The oldest male, easily identifiable as the herd's leader by now, considering his dominant tone, almost shouted in fury. "I order you to...!"

 _Ah... of course!_ Specter thought to himself, obviously understanding the adults' behavior now. His expression darkened further but he saw no other option in this situation. Plan A had failed, plan B had failed. Now it was time for plan C. It would always be an emergency plan to him, but this didn't change the fact that it also always remained a plan in the first place.

 **Screech!**

His piercing shriek cut their argument short and made all of the leaf-eaters take multiple steps back, but then their eyes filled with surprise as he himself suddenly moved backwards. And this time, they didn't move forwards anymore.

"Look! It's... It's working! That dumb sharptooth knows he can't take on all of us! Just... hold the line! Don't let him get past!"

Specter took one more step backwards, then another one, and then he turned sideways and threw a ghastly mix of a contorted face and devilish grin at the adults. Right before he spun around completely and sprinted off towards the biggest rocks in his field of vision.

"Why is he...?"

"Now is our chance! Run!"

"No! NO! How...?! He knows!"

"What?! But...?!"

"Damn it! What tells you he is alone?! Fastbiters never hunt alone, not even such a big one! We have five other children to protect! Now go! Move!"

"NO! NO...!"

"I SAID MOVE!"

Specter couldn't see the expressions of overwhelming shock in the leaf-eaters' eyes anymore, neither how they had to get that one female moving by force as she resisted with all her strength and screamed with all her might. He was only focused on his new target. He saw nothing wrong in this act anymore, especially not considering that this outcome was the fault of whoever had dared to warn the small herd. The only thing which seriously annoyed him now was that it would be a way smaller meal, given that he would naturally share it with Alba. But he refused to search for other prey at this point. He has started this hunt, and now he would finish it successfully. This meal would be halfway filling, too, and at least he would be able to carry the smaller kill to his companion, he quickly thought to himself.

Specter arrived at the huge rock formation within five seconds. He threw one quick glance behind himself to make sure the adults were no threat anymore, which they were indeed not, before beginning to stalk, sniffing the evening air and narrowing down the prominent scent while scanning his surroundings. Judging by the tracks on the ground, the juvenile had apparently played around between those rocks while searching for roots and other food until the sharptooth warning was uttered. But this leaf-eater seemed pretty smart, as its tracks didn't give Specter any evidence of its hideout. Even the fresh ones led into multiple directions.

 _Huh... Crafty... You would've probably made a capable leader... You already know how to confuse visual-reliant predators, even in such a situation... Might've worked with Troodons... But I'm a Utahraptor... and a damn big one at that. You forgot about my nose... So... I know very well you're around here... Just come out... You're running away from the inevitable... Your parents and friends have abandoned you... You won't make it now... Other predators might eat you alive... at least I will make it quick and be thankful for it..._

Though he made sure to keep his thoughts hidden inside his mind, he couldn't help but wonder if speaking them aloud would be useful. Maybe he would startle or shock the prey with them and finally lure it out. He decided against it, however. And not only because he would've thought of himself as a borderline crazy asshole, were he to act like this all of a sudden. Whenever he was about to take a life, he reminded himself that he would never make fun of, overly scare or mock his targets. As a hunter on a hunt, he would always keep his discipline. He would get the job done, have his meal, and only then show his joy.

 _No exceptions... No jokes, no taunts. Alright... hm... Only ten more... Left side... This shouldn't be...  
_

 **Screech!**

Yet again, this strange, high-pitched voice from not even three minutes ago interrupted his thoughts. It definitely belonged to something small and able to speak leaf-eater, yet also to something that was able to vocalize such shrieks, so Specter only grew more confused and annoyed by it, and increasingly angrier.

 _For fuck's sake! What is that?! A Velociraptor? Deinonychus? Maybe a small pack? Are they trying to scare the youngling away from me to have him for themselves? No... Impossible... It's still the same one... And whatever it is, it spoke leaf-eater...  
_

But he had little time to think any further as the juvenile Altirhinus suddenly emerged from its cover, a large pile of rocks next to a massive boulder to his left, coincidentally also roughly from where this shriek had originated, and sprinted away.

 _There you are!_

Specter exploded into a sprint of his own and chased after the leaf-eater, following it eastwards.

The juvenile was not slow, still way slower than he was, though, but always used the many rocks and obstacles to keep its distance to him. Specter had to watch his feet, head and flanks at the same time so that he wouldn't fall over and injure himself, as the area was littered with boulders and rocks. And yet, by now, he kept his calm again. His prey ran in a straight line, and Specter already noticed that the obstacles lessened. Which meant that they were about to reach open ground where he could use his raw speed again. Consequently, it was only a matter of time until he would be able to catch up to his target and end this, only a matter of time before he was finally allowed to eat something.

That time should come after only ten more seconds of sprinting. Clear ground, no hindrances. This caused Specter to abruptly stop his movement, and something inside of him wanted him to flash a satisfied grin. But again, he forced himself to stay serious.

The juvenile had stopped, too, and with it its desperate screams for help and support. The leaf-eater stood close to a ledge and turned around to face him with a horrified look in its eyes. Specter didn't know how deep the fall from there would be, but, considering the youngling didn't take its chances, it must've been deep enough to break more than just a few bones.

 _Nowhere to run now... Time to end this... fast and painless..._

Carefully but extremely determinedly, Specter moved in on his prey. He looked the youngling straight in its eyes, and the emotions of fear and horror were only the most easily discernible ones for him to see. Were he forced to analyze that now, he would've also seen shame, regret, confusion and sadness. All of those looks, all of those emotions, would soon merge together into the lifeless stare of death, though. Standing less than three meters away from his target, he prepared his legs and readied his killing claws. One quick pounce and it would be all over.

Moments before commanding his muscles to act, he couldn't help but wonder why the leaf-eater suddenly seemed like as if it was looking at something behind him. He never noticed the shadow from above diving down on him with incredible speed.

 **Slice!**

An unbearable outburst of pain on his face as a talon ripped up the right side of his head. Then, darkness on his right eye.

 **Thud!**

The sound of him hitting the ground, twitching in agony, was accompanied by that of a lighter impact and the scream of the leaf-eater as it fell down the ledge. Following that, the faintest of sounds, of crunching bones and fading life, from down there as the Altirhinus hit solid earth. And then silence, if only for another short moment.

"My eye! My... fucking eye! Shit! Fuck!"

Specter rolled around on the ground in his severe pain, unable to control himself. Only when he almost fell down the ledge, too, he tried to command his body to hold still. His body obeyed him, so he rolled away from the dangerous cliff and on his back. He tried to open his right eye as he stared up at the beautiful evening sky with his left, such a disgustingly mocking sight for him to see, but it didn't work. The complete right side of his head felt numb, and considerable amounts of blood ran down his neck, staining the soil around him. He put his hand on the injured side, pulled it back and now stared at his bloody forelimb.

And it was at that moment, when the immediate shock wore off for a second, that it hit him. It was at that moment when he actually thought about jumping off that ledge himself. Without one of his eyes, he would lose the will to live. These have always been his own, internal words, even as a human. He had so often pondered this scenario and how he would react in such a case, but now that it was in effect it felt like as if he was about to sign his own death sentence.

Slowly, still shaking with horror, he rolled over on his feet and groggily stood up, closing in on the cliff. When he arrived at the edge, he looked down. Horrified to the core, yet unsurprised, he was unable to measure the distance to the ground down there with his remaining eye. No matter how hard he tried, he didn't know if a fall would be twenty, thirty, forty or even fifty meters deep. The only thing he could make out was the dense foliage on lower ground, hidden beneath which the crushed leaf-eater youngling must've lain. Or, to put it in other words, out of his immediate reach.

But little did something so basic like food matter to him now. Whatever creature it was that had sliced his eye out, it was gone without leaving a trace and even stole his prey. And it has rendered him a useless fuzzball again. Just when he had finally gotten used to everything and built up his confidence, experienced true, free happiness as a Utahraptor, this happened. It completely shattered him from the inside, tearing him apart over and over. Maybe it was even more. Maybe it even killed him that his greatest fear has become reality.

And to add to all that, footsteps of a sprinting raptor were closing in on him. Which he was indifferent about as well. At this point, he felt nothing, smelled nothing but his own blood and cared about nothing anymore. Was this fastbiter friend or foe? He didn't care. Was this fastbiter which was 20 meters away by now, judging by the sounds, about to kill him in his injured state? Neither did he care about that. Maybe he was even looking forward to it.

"Specter! Is that... your blood?!" The Utahraptor exclaimed under her heavy panting, coming to an abrupt stop right behind him. "What happened?! Are you alright?"

It was Alba, and Specter honestly feared that he would scream in her face or even go as far as attack her if he were to open his mouth to answer her question, even though she was not able to see the disfigured side of his head as he stared into the distance and away from her. So instead, he turned around and simply presented his face. Alba gasped heavily once she saw the injury, and seeing the look that followed from her only destroyed Specter even further. It was a look which communicated that he must've looked like a lost cause, someone who would be best to just lie down and die.

"I... I... screwed up..." Specter explained his situation with an emotionless, clipped voice. "Someone... alerted the herd of leaf-eaters... I had picked out... I chased a juvenile to here and then... something just... My eye... My... damn eye... I can't..."

"Let me have a look." Alba suddenly interrupted, very controlled.

Though her command sounded more like a careful request, and it felt like as if an asking 'please' was about to follow soon after if he wouldn't react, Specter obeyed and laid down on his haunches so that Alba could comfortably reach his head. Very gently, she grabbed and held onto his snout and neck with her forelimbs and licked over the cut once. It would've set the new standards for the most intense pain Specter has ever felt, were he not feeling numb and depressed right now as he asked himself what she could possibly achieve with her actions other than getting a taste of his blood. Maybe a sign of comfort? Even so, it didn't work.

After a few more moments, Alba let go of his head and went over to his front, forcing him to look at her.

"You're fine." She spoke dryly, internally with overwhelming relief, though. "Whatever it was, it missed your eye. You just can't open it because you have blood everywhere and a nasty swelling, but it should go by once you've cleaned it with some water."

Complete silence again. Specter only stared at her, his emotions once more twisted and in pieces. That observation from Alba felt like a few hefty slaps to the face, left, right, left and right again. A wake-up call like none other before. Something that usually had a positive, calming impact on him. But then he couldn't control himself anymore. He couldn't hold back anymore. He suddenly jumped up and lunged at her.

" _Gasp_... Hey... Not... so... _gak_... hard..."

He was hugging her so tightly that he lifted her off her feet and almost choked her in his embrace while nuzzling her at the same time. He realized, of course, that she was in an extremely uncomfortable position and thus intended to put a stop to that. Especially because his arms made him aware that lifting a 600 kilogram Utahraptor wasn't really all that healthy for his muscles. So, Specter let go of her and returned to his standard posture, immensely relieved and jubilant. However, he quickly wanted to mention that he had completely failed in acquiring food.

When he saw that Alba had caught her breath again, he spoke up.

"The prey... It fell down that ledge... I don't think we can get down there so easily, but the adults might not be too far away... We should..."

"Not in your state, you idiot." Alba butted in, dead serious, before he could finish his sentence. "I found a place to stay for the night, with some water. You need to clean that wound, a meal is not worth risking an infection this close to your eye."

"But...!" Specter immediately started to protest before looking away for a second, frowning heavily, and softening up his voice. "Yeah... Yeah, you're right, of course..." He then admitted, cursing himself that he had messed this up so badly. "Ok... take point then."

Alba offered a confirming nod, and the two fastbiters began their trip with their usual, moderate pace to the place she had found. Specter used the time to test out if he could open his right eye now, but it still didn't work. It still felt like as if he had a knife sticking in his eyehole. It was just another occasion where he wished that this time offered at least some grade of technology like a mirror, so that he could take a look at himself and the injury. Not that he didn't trust Alba's words, but making sure of it himself would give him real certainty. Although, he figured that he would probably be able to use the water Alba had mentioned, given the right lighting. And now that he thought of her, he looked over to his left flank where she was moving.

Surprisingly, she seemed anything but happy, thoughtful but sad, with her eyes planted on the ground in front of her.

 _Did I actually... hurt you with that hug? Or... is it still because I've sent you to do the 'less dangerous' stuff?_ Specter thought about her current behavior and stance. He decided to wait until later before confronting her with that.

* * *

The twenty minutes it had taken the two to reach their destination seemed more like twenty years to Specter. The numbness on his face had already disappeared and was replaced by stinging pain. The wound was not leaking too much blood anymore, instead starting to itch massively by now. He would kill to make it stop already, he thought to himself figuratively.

And so he was pretty disappointed when he finally laid eye on the place Alba had found, because it was nothing more than a small cave with no water anywhere in sight. He barely fit into it, almost hitting his head on the entrance's ceiling, but then he was overwhelmed with surprise as he followed her a bit deeper inside and found a nice pool of clean water. Crystal clear water, so clear that he could actually see to the bottom.

 _Huh... So it was actually a good idea to let you do this... Females and their thinking... at least compared to myself... I would never have even checked the insides of this small cave..._

He wasted no time moving over there, lowering his head and then fully submerging it in the pool. Bubbles emerged on the surface as he vocalized all his pain, anger and annoyance underwater, which Alba picked up from her position and shifted uneasily, already thinking about what she would soon say now.

After Specter raised his head out of the water and shook himself dry, he tried to open his right eye yet again. This time it worked and he was able to see with that side, if only quite blurry as he was unable to open it to the fullest. That was more than enough, however, and so he was filled with extreme relief for another time. And having ultimately concluded that, he wanted to discuss with Alba what to do next. They definitely still needed to hunt. He had heard from Littlefoot what would happen once a sharptooth didn't get anything to eat for several days, which he has been aware of even before that but hearing it from an actual Utahraptor was something else entirely, so he absolutely wanted to avoid this.

But before he could even raise his voice, Alba quickly walked over to him and spoke up.

"Specter, I... I'm so sorry... Even now, I wasn't fast enough... I... can't believe I..."

"It's not your..." Specter immediately tried to respond, without even thinking about it.

However, Alba wouldn't let him continue any further.

"No, let me speak!" She said assertively, making Specter go silent. "I never apologized to you openly... After how I've treated you... how I've almost killed you... All this time... I only cared about myself... I never cared about your own story... You have lost so much more than I have... Even though I cannot understand most things you've told me, even though you said yourself that it would be better for everyone... I just know that this must hurt you... And yet, you never bothered... You were always so nice and kind to me, to everyone... You always listened... when no one else ever did... You always moved on and never looked back... So... I just... I just want to say that I'm sorry... for misjudging you so badly... for everything... Can you... ever forgive me?"

Frankly, Specter was pretty dumbstruck by this. Though it didn't surprise him that Alba, at some point, would've spoken about her past actions, it definitely surprised him that she decided to do it now and even seemed to feel guilty for his injury, for which she really wasn't to blame in the slightest. And yes, he had to admit, deep down inside of him he had felt the desire to hear her confess and apologize. But he has never been one to overly resent others for hiding their feelings as he himself was pretty shy when it came to that, after all, so he softened up his look, completely forgetting all the anger he felt about himself before, and moved a step closer to her.

"Of course I can. I already have." He answered calmly, which made Alba's eyes gleam with happiness and surprise, but then his voice turned extremely earnest. "But... that's not entirely correct, what you said... No, it doesn't hurt me... not much, at least... but I did look back... I still do... It's too hard not to... Even though I'm glad there will be no more wars and everything now, even though I like this world right here very much... I miss all the nice things I had in my old life... But please don't think I had it hard, compared to yourself... I had it easier than anyone, easier than you and easier than Seeker and all the other sharpteeth of his pack... I never saw any one of my friends or family die with my own eyes. My father was old, my pet dog was quite old, and both of them were ill... I always knew they were going to die in the next few years... and I was afraid of the day when that would happen... And I also knew that humanity would perish at some point, probably together with this whole earth... Maybe I would have even lived to see it, the most gruesome end of an era, surpassing what was once supposed to be the end of the dinosaurs... Now I will never witness this anymore. I am witnessing death in a different way now... I'm a hunter. I've killed too many to cry, too many had to die so that I could live... More so, I have almost only good memories of my friends, my family, my whole past, and that is why I'm happy. You, however... You have experienced something way worse. You saw your parents die before your eyes, your own brother betraying you... Those memories will always be there... sometimes even overshadowing the good ones. I don't know how that must feel... I can only imagine it... In this case, it's not about numbers, Alba. This is why I have forgiven you as soon as I heard about what you've been through."

Alba just stood there, stunned and unable to vocally respond to this insane level of acceptance and forgiveness. Instead, she walked up to Specter with borderline tearful eyes and buried her head in his chest.

"Thank you..." She muttered shakily.

"There, there..." Specter returned with a soft smile while patting her lightly on the back. "It's alright... Come on, don't do that to me now. I hate seeing my friends cry..."

The two fastbiters stayed how they were for another while, until Alba retracted her head, blinked a few times and went back to wearing a neutral face, which then turned extremely determined as she made up her mind about what to do next.

"Ok..." Specter started once he felt like the time was ripe for this. "Are you feeling ready for another go? I'm pretty sure there are plenty of leaf-eaters..."

"No." Alba interrupted firmly. "Not this time. It's my turn to make something up to you. At least this once... You look after your wound in the meantime."

Even though Specter was surprised yet again, and he had to force himself to the maximum not to object her plans, he responded instantly.

"You don't have to... but fine. Good hunting. And... be safe."

An honest smile escaped Alba's mouth before she turned around and left the cave, sniffing the air and sprinting off into the approaching darkness. Specter's own smile was more that of a defeated rather than a happy raptor, as he really would've preferred to offer her his support, but he figured that this was the first step in showing her that they were friends with even rights and opinions. Though it would still take him some time to get used to this, personally entrusting females with highly dangerous tasks, this level of gender equality was something he was more than fine with. Something he has always been aware of and fine with when it came to his new species, actually, and something he also very much liked. It was just that it still felt so wrong to him, having lived a human life for over 20 years, over 20 years in which he would never have asked a female to do something like this when he was somehow able to do it himself.

In the end, however, he figured that he could care about Alba while fully trusting in her abilities simultaneously. Especially since his recent injury made him pretty much useless for now, anyway.

 _Of course you'll be safe. You've survived too much not to be... Well then... I guess now I will experience what it's like to be a male lion. Sleep all day and let the girls do everything for me... Just why do I feel like a dick, doing it?_

Still smiling, now at his own thoughts, he shook his head and went over to the source of water to clean his wound some more.

* * *

 _Now... what happened to you here?_

It had taken Alba merely half the time Specter and herself spent getting to their shelter to return to the place where he was injured almost critically. She has already found a few suitable sources of food on her way, but first, she definitely wanted to search around this area here. Though Specter did not tell her what kind of dinosaur it was which had attacked him, since he obviously didn't know it himself, she just couldn't help but feel the burning desire to find out. She had more than enough time on her hands, and there was one thing she was sure of.

She would never let such a cowardly attack like this go unpunished. Someone had hurt her friend. And she had not been there to help him. In a way, she even counted this as an insult towards herself, one of the highest order.

 _I will find out who and what you are... I will find you... and let him judge... It's the least I can do now...  
_

So, Alba started with analyzing the faint footprints on the dry ground, and she was immediately finished with that. There were those from Specter, very easy to make out when one considered his size, and those from the leaf-eater juvenile he had chased. That was it. No matter for how long she stared at the earth in her search for another presence, no one else had recently been here.

Instead, she went a few steps closer to the ledge and looked down at the remains of Specter's blood.

 _So, you chased the leaf-eater to here... You cornered it... just about to kill... Then something attacked you... and then the leaf-eater fell... Hmm..._

Then she went to the ledge itself and looked down, unable to find anything as the ground below was covered with dense leafage.

 _But that's deep enough... A fall would definitely be deadly to a juvenile... Hmm... No other footprints... So... it was a flyer. It dived down on you, almost scratched your eye out... and then threw your target down to eat it... Very smart... but why would a flyer do that? Sharptooth flyers are almost always big enough to kill on their own... and most of them can be noisy... I know about your senses, so why didn't you hear or smell it coming?_ _ _Besides, they often eat fish..._ Maybe it was one of those really small sharptooth flyers, a very hungry one... But even so, why would it have attacked you? It risked a lot, doing that... It risked too much, actually..._

Never has she felt so unsatisfied, so useless and blind to the obvious. There must've been something she had missed so far. It just felt like she had. Many times has she seen various flyers doing their hunting over the course of her life, and not once had one of them used a tactic like this. A flyer's body was always very fragile, especially the extremely vulnerable wings, which was why they either scavenged or hunted small prey like hatchlings, fish or ground fuzzies. Sure, there were those flyers that could grow even taller than an adult two-footer, but Alba was dead certain that Specter would never have ignored, not smelled or not seen such a humongous dinosaur in his immediate vicinity.

 _Just a small, greedy, aggressive flyer then... Still... that wound on your face... It doesn't fit to such a small flyer's claws...  
_

Alba sighed audibly, forcing herself to stop pondering this now. The aggressor was probably long since gone, anyway. At least Specter got away with both his eyes intact, she deduced, and this was more than enough to lift her mood. Now she would lift Specter's mood by bringing him some tasty food, making up at least part of everything he has done for her already.

But then, just as she was about to raise her head and turn around, she finally noticed some movement out of the corner of her eye.

 _What is...?_ Alba thought curiously as she lowered herself to the ground and reached after an object, stuck below the ledge, of which only the very tip was visible. When she retracted her forelimb, she opened her hand and looked down at it in surprise.

It was a feather, a small and very colorful one, mostly red but also shimmering with orange, blue and black colors.

 _A... 'feather'. It's fresh... the scent is still on it... Hmm... Smells... unfamiliar... Not from a fastbiter... And flyers don't have them, either... Does it belong to whoever attacked you? It would make sense... If the leaf-eater fell down here... and the thief after it... maybe it lost this here. But that still means it can fly... I should just take this to you then, later. Maybe you will recognize that scent? Or at least know what this belongs to...  
_

This time, she concluded her thoughts for good. She grasped the single feather tightly in her claws and went off, back towards where she knew some leaf-eaters would be.

* * *

When Alba finally reached her planned destination, it was just before nightfall. The Bright Circle had once more disappeared behind the massive mountains, and the Night Circle was about to rise. And this meant that she would not be spotted as easily, at least compared to what usually happened whenever she had tried to hunt at daytime.

 _Ok... Threehorn family... Just a little bit more..._

She stopped her movement only when she had eyesight on her targets. The family consisted of two adult threehorns, male and female, and their juvenile offspring, also a female. Obviously, Alba chose to take out the child, as it was just a bit smaller than herself and would never stand a good chance on its own. She would have to separate it from the parents, but was an easy enough job to do when one was as fast as her.

However, seeing her prey like this, a happy, young family with only one child, brought up all the disgusting memories from her past, from her first hunt.

 _She really does look a lot like..._

But Alba shook her head, dismissing those upcoming concerns and fears. She has gathered way enough experience over the past years to never let such a mistake happen again. By now, in contrary to back then, she knew exactly where and when to strike most kinds of huntable prey to first immobilize and then kill them in one blow. And as much as she hated thinking about it now, it had been Shade to teach her most of this.

Even so, she was able to dismiss that, too. Though Shade's brutal betrayal would probably nag at her until she met him again, should she ever meet him once more, that was, she would also not let any remaining feelings for her brother get in her way. Not when she was in the midst of a hunt. And especially not when there was a new fastbiter at her side. A fastbiter whose ways and background would likely forever remain mysterious to her, yet it was maybe just because of this why Specter seemed so trustworthy. His actions certainly made it feel right for her to trust him with her life.

Anyhow, Alba focused on her prey again. She stood around three longneck-lengths away from the family, meaning that she would have to close the distance some more to be able to ambush them successfully.

 _As close as possible... One and a half should do..._ She figured, lowered herself to the ground and carefully closed in on the threehorns, as noiselessly as always.

However, just as she was about to reach her desired position, the juvenile threehorn suddenly turned around and looked seemingly right at her. Alba quickly dropped to the ground behind the rather small bits of foliage which were barely able to partially hide her very noticeable body, making herself as small as she managed to. The threehorn continued to stare at her position, but then it strangely turned back around and to the adult male.

And it was right at this moment that Alba noticed Specter already had an impact on her behavior. Because what she would have done, had she never met him, was stand up to lessen the distance again. She didn't do it now, though, and that had a good reason. Her ears were just about picking up those strange, meaningless leaf-eater sounds. Those sounds that sounded like utterings of stupid creatures, unable to coordinate themselves. At least Alba, until quite recently, had always thought this, had always been taught this by Shade and her parents alike.

 _He... He was right... They're... speaking... Yes, they must be... They're really speaking... to each other... just like us... She must have seen me, and now she's warning her father... But...  
_

The very last, tiny little bit of doubt disappeared from her mind as soon as the massive, male threehorn turned around to look at her current position, too. Luckily for her, the male quickly shook its head, huffed audibly, turned around to the smaller female and grunted at it in annoyance before returning to its usual behavior of feasting on its food. The juvenile answered to this by angrily grunting back something different, then walking away from the adults with its head held high.

Alba was pretty taken aback by this display, now seeing everything she had thought to know about leaf-eaters in new light.

 _Threehorns and their pride... So typical... But this here... this right here... It's so obvious... How did I never notice?_

She decided to be thankful for having always been obedient to her parents and brother, having never felt such a dangerous thing as pride, but also angry with herself for never questioning their seemingly blinkered teachings. And, of course, she decided to extensively thank Specter for simply gifting her this knowledge. All of this later, however. Now was the time to exploit this situation, this threehorn family's pride. After all, it would cost one of them their precious life.

And so Alba carefully stood up once more, her eyes set on her prey. The threehorn, in its display of anger and stubbornness that its father did not take the careful warning seriously, had actually separated itself from its parents, now using its horns to ram over some smaller rocks more than a whole longneck-length away from the adults. Alba figured that it really couldn't get any easier now, as she would be able to jump straight to the part where she could chase the target. It was a simple enough plan, yet she was used to thinking everything through multiple times so that nothing could go wrong. For example, she also took into account that she was still holding the single feather in her claws, rendering her unable to use one of her forelimbs. Still, she knew it would be alright, so if anything, she only had to dismiss upcoming memories of Shade again.

But just as Alba concluded calculating the perfect route for a full-speed sprint followed by a successful ambush, chase and kill, she realized that she had not calculated what someone like Specter would've described as extended 'environmental variables'.

"Help! Someone! Please...!"

Those distant shrieks for support, coming from what Alba found must've most definitely been a small fastbiter, at least until the voice turned into meaningless clutter which sounded an awful lot like leaf-eater, made the young threehorn aware of itself and it moved back to its parents rather quickly. The adults, too, noticed this change, and so the entire threehorn family as a whole swiftly left the scene before Alba could even do as much as take her first step of the planned sprint. The only thing she could do now was watch her prey disappear.

She growled angrily for just a moment, but then she swung her head around to look into the direction from where those screams had come from. Not thinking any further, she sprinted off towards them, not knowing if it was to silence them in her anger or to really offer support. Maybe two small fastbiters were battling something out, unintentionally ruining her hunt in the end, in which case she would really have to control herself to not rip them apart for this. Or maybe it was just a random sharptooth, chased by a bigger leaf-eater, in which case she would quite gladly step in to have something to hunt after all.

Whatever it would be, she had a feeling that it was somehow important to check out the reason for this noise, though she never realized that this 'somehow' was the faint scent coming from her forelimb.

* * *

 **All right... yeah... again, I'm terribly sorry for the long delay and that I wasn't able to keep my word. However, there will be actually another chapter, which I will hopefully be posting tonight, 'tonight' being in CEST. And in that chapter's afterword, I will then finally explain a bit as to why this has taken me so long.  
**

 **In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this one, and as always:  
**

 **Take care, and have a nice day!**


	26. Chapter 25: Judgement

**Chapter 25: Judgement**

 ** _"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die." - George R.R. Martin_**

"Give up already! You're dead anyway, little fuzzball!"

She didn't listen to those taunts coming from the small sharptooth flyer chasing her. She only focused on evading the constant attacks from him, as he was a masterful flyer indeed while she herself was only capable of short glides. And even though she slightly outmatched him in size, even though she had more dangerous claws on her feet, that male sharptooth flyer had a much bigger snout filled with bigger and deadlier teeth with which he would be able to kill her with one lucky bite.

No, she would have to flee until he had enough. Since she was way faster and nimbler than him while moving on the ground, though, she figured that the chances were quite in her favor. Obviously she was utterly afraid, having been threatened before already, but betrayed and now being chased like this for the first time in her life. And yet she definitely regretted calling out for help just recently. She realized by now that this had been a potentially fatal mistake. No one would come to her aid anyway, and all it would achieve was attract bigger sharpteeth if she were to scream again.

So she just continued using the small trees, trunks and bushes to dodge the flyer's relentless attacks, running on the ground for a few moments and then climbing back up a trunk to glide again after changing directions. The sharptooth flyer already started falling behind as he couldn't run on the ground or foresee her swift movements, making her confidence rise to unparalleled levels by now.

And then the flyer finally slowed down and disappeared somewhere above her.

 _Ok... Ok... Finally! Now... one more and then change direction..._

Having reached her target, the last tree in close range, she pushed herself off into another direction. And that was when disaster struck.

 **Thud!**

"Gotcha!"

The sharptooth flyer had simply gained altitude, disappearing from immediate sight for a short moment, and then dived down again to build up speed, easily intercepting her glide and smacking her onto the ground, now keeping her in place with his wings. She couldn't even see him as she was lying on her chest, only able to feel his hot breath in her neck, lusting to rip her apart. Slowly, enjoying it.

"Hah! Stupid little shit!" He exclaimed mockingly, but just as much as if this would be the most casual conversation ever. "Did you seriously think your relationship with us was over? Just like... _that_? Although, come to think of it... Sister lets you know she is _very_ thankful for all your help. We could've gotten used to this. You did lovely indeed, fooling that stupid, fat fastbiter! You've really outdone yourself, this time! I almost envy you. But... How shall I put it...? Sadly, she said you're no use to us anymore... You know, now that 'she can fly again'..." He let out a dirty chuckle at this point, licking his teeth. "Well, to me, you actually still are. Oh, I wonder if your flesh is as tasty as it looks..."

Although she still wasn't able to see his face, the flyer's wide grin after that statement would've been discernible to a blind dinosaur.

"You disgusting bastards!" She shouted back in rage. "I did everything you wanted! We had an agreement!"

"Until today... As you know, my dear sister likes to change her mind from time to time. Especially since you've drawn a lot of attention to us... And did we ever agree on letting you stay alive?" The sharptooth flyer said again, as calmly as before, just even more taunting this time. "So, any last words? Hm? No? Well then... Time to..."

 **Shluck!**

The flyer's final taunt was promptly, but mostly violently, interrupted and the gurgling sounds and those of ripping flesh which followed from him made it obvious that she had indeed attracted a bigger sharptooth with her screams. It was quite clear to her what would happen to herself now. Out of instinct, as soon as the weight on her back lessened, she rolled over...

 _Oh... my..._

...and stared in utter horror at what stood right in front of her.

It was a female fastbiter with white skin, blue eyes and of way above average size, even for the standards of her already large kind, the sharptooth flyer impaled on one of her massive sickle claws. And she stared back down at her as if she was her next target. As the fastbiter then suddenly opened her hand, switched looks between what lay in it and before her, her own eyes widened even further. Because even though her nose wasn't all that great, she could still just about smell her own scent coming from whatever this fastbiter was holding in her forelimb. Or maybe she was just imagining things in her fear. In any event, something was very odd here.

What frightened her even more was that the fastbiter just stood there, unmoving, staring down at her again. As bizarre as the situation already was, though, she wanted to act, do something. This strange sharptooth refrained from killing her outright, so maybe she had just been nearby and decided to help her. Such a thing as helpfulness did apparently exist even for sharpteeth, after all. Also, the fastbiter had obviously found herself a little snack in this disgusting sharptooth flyer. Surely, she wouldn't kill her as well in this case.

"Th... Thank..."

But before she could finish her statement, the fastbiter suddenly reached out for her and grabbed her with her free forelimb, completely restricting her movement with a firm grasp around her body and wings.

"Hey...! What...?!"

"Shut up." Alba commanded in a tone that frightened even herself in retrospect. "You're coming with me. I think a friend of mine would like to meet you..."

* * *

"Where... are you taking me...?"

No answer came from the female fastbiter, obviously and as expected, as she was carrying the dead flyer between her teeth and didn't seem to be very talkative anyway. She did notice, however, that she was starting to slow down, meaning they were just about to reach their destination. And there really was no destination she wanted to reach less than the upcoming, she figured. It would probably be the last journey of her life, and she wasn't even given the opportunity to move there by herself, wasn't even given a reason for this. Just when she thought that the final day of horror was over, that she was free again, free from those treacherous flyers, this happened.

Still, she was determined to change this fastbiter's mind. Somehow. After all, what could she have done wrong to her? Or to that 'friend' of hers, whatever he or she wanted from her. Actually, she had quite a few problems believing that this big female sharptooth even had something like a friend, considering her strange, almost repelling looks and quiet demeanor. Then again, she has been alone for so many years herself that this insulting thought rather quickly disappeared, turning into something that felt more like pity. If it was pity for herself or the fastbiter, this eluded her conscious mind.

But just as she was about to open her mouth in an effort to convince her to let her go, the fastbiter suddenly stopped. In front of them lay the entrance to a cave. It seemed like she finally reached her destination, the destination which she had so much hoped she would never reach. The fastbiter proceeded to place down her kill on the ground before assuming a normal posture and taking a breath, raising her voice.

"Specter! I'm back."

Several moments in which nothing happened went by. She starting questioning herself once more if this white fastbiter was some sort of lunatic with an imaginary companion, but if that really was the case, what could possibly happen next? More terrifying even, if nothing happened, what would happen to herself?

Following this, however, something did happen. A pair of big, yellow eyes, one of them only half-opened, appeared in the blackness which embraced everything inside that cave. Those eyes were unmistakably from another fastbiter, but this just couldn't be possible. It just couldn't be. They were mounted so high up that this sharptooth must've been something else. Anything but a fastbiter.

But came the next moment, the massive sharptooth slowly emerged from the cave, and as more and more details from it became visible, her eyes grew even wider than before. First the big, yet still very shapely head, decorated with golden crest feathers on top, then the two forelimbs, also decorated with feathers, this time black ones with golden outlines, and lastly the main body, which was almost completely covered in black feathers, only the back and tail crested with golden ones again.

The size of this male fastbiter wasn't even her main concern and source of utter fear and horror. It was his looks, those black and golden feathers. And, of course, the easily visible slash right next to his right eye.

Specter was a bit puzzled right now. He was massively disappointed, curious and surprised at the same time. Instead of a nice meal, Alba came back with this. A small pterosaur and a just as small feathered creature, which was still alive. Had she actually thought that this would be enough for the two of them? Had she actually not been able to hunt something bigger?

He immediately started doubting this, so his curiosity was the emotion which stayed for now.

 _Hmm... She's killed herself a Dimorphodon. Huh, got it finally right with those, at last... Messed him up good, as well. Gotten a bit angry that he was faster than you, huh, big girl? Hm. But... what is that?_

He moved a step closer to Alba and looked down at the little dinosaur in her grasp, which was looking up at him as if he were at least twice as big and covered in blood and innards. At first glance, this small female looked more like an oversized bird, being roughly the size of a Velociraptor. She sported extensive, colorful feathering, the colors ranging from mainly red to orange and even spots of blue and black, noticeable wings and a small, delicate snout. But then he looked down at her winged legs, which were sticking out from below Alba's paw, and realized what this little carnivore really was. In the vocabulary of this time, she would be called 'glider'. However, the Microraptor who was living in the Great Valley, Guido, too, was a glider, yet differed quite a bit in size and hunting capabilities from this one here. So, like always, Specter wanted to be precise.

 _Very slim build, must be weighing four kilos at best... Stiff tail, very long feathers on arms and legs... Yeah, basically four wings. And she has sickle claws, too. Microraptor? No, she's way too big for that... just over a whole meter in length, even a bit longer than that Dimorphodon... But it still fits. She belongs to the clade of the Microraptoria... And with that size, it would make her a... Changyuraptor._

Having settled this, Specter's curiosity turned back into confusion, so he gave Alba his full attention and simply tilted his head in an asking manner. Alba's reaction to this was that she raised her left forelimb, stretched it out to him and opened her hand, revealing a red feather. It was a perfect match to the glider's very long tail feathers, which were making up a good third of her whole body length. But Specter was still unable to connect the female Changyuraptor to this feather in such a way that it would make sense as to why Alba seemed so angered and cold right now, and why she had come back without any 'real' food.

That should change quite quickly, however, as Alba spoke up.

"I happened to find this at the place where someone attacked you." She spoke in an emotionless, analytical monotone, waggling the feather between two of her fingers a bit. "And then I happened to overhear that our little sharptooth here, who scared my food away with her screams, was coincidentally involved in your hunt as well."

There had not even been a need for Alba to continue her explanation. As soon as she had finished the first part, Specter's face suddenly contorted, all his curiosity and surprise vanished, and he fixated the glider in her hand with a murderous stare. It made complete sense to him by now, what kind of creature it was which had ruined his hunt and almost sliced one of his precious eyes out. Everything was a perfect match. This female Changyuraptor had fitting claws to cause a precise cut such as that on his face, had the ability to glide fast and in complete silence with her long feathers, and since she was also a 'raptor' by definition, a prehistoric bird of prey, he was dead certain that she was the one who had scared the Altirhinus juvenile out of cover with that high-pitched screech, imitating a much larger predator.

And now, there were many, many things he would've liked to do. Things he would've liked to do either to or with this glider. Most of them involved lots of blood and death.

However, none of those things would he enact just yet. First, he wanted to hear what she had to say to her defense. Only then, he would issue a judgement. Just this one, quick thought about this made him aware of the power he was now holding in this time, as a relatively big dinosaur. That female glider's life lay in his hands, she was completely at his mercy, yet it was different from hunting. Hunting was about sating his hunger, one of the most basics needs, but this right here was more about retaliation. Nature did not provide any laws for this. And so what he now realized was that he was the so called 'three powers' in one. Executive, legislative, judicative. All combined into one being. Nature allowed him to make his own laws and rules, judge others by and also act by them himself.

It would've filled him with joy and satisfaction, were he not the kind of person he simply was. Right now, it filled him with nothing more than bits of fear and worry. And although this thought process happened in the subconscious part of his mind, he couldn't help but feel glad that humanity had decided to firmly divide those three powers in most political systems. No one should possess this grade of might. Though, this didn't change the fact that he was wielding it right now, choosing to utilize it.

Ultimately, Specter continued to wear his expression filled with rage and contempt as he reached out with his own left forelimb and opened his hand. In doing so, he maintained eye contact with the glider, noticing that she was beginning to fall apart internally with fear and horror at the sight of his claws and current behavior. It would make his upcoming decision all the easier, he figured.

Alba has never seen Specter like this, swathed in such a strange mixture of anger and determination. And truth be told, she was a little bit worried what he planned on doing next. Still, she would hold true to her thoughts. She would let him judge the glider. After all, that dastardly little sharptooth had stolen his prey, injured him, and even had the nerve to risk his life by alarming the leaf-eater herd beforehand. Maybe she would not like Specter's upcoming decision, but she would still let him have it.

As soon as Alba opened her hand, the glider tried to flee in an outburst of her instincts. But she should get no chance to do so, as Specter had expected this and immediately caught her, pretty much squeezing her in his big paw. He lifted her up close to his face and continued to stare at her, presenting the little cut she had inflicted on him, not even uttering as much as a faint growl. He knew that silence was the most terrifying choice of words, to say nothing at all, very useful in many situations. Silence could break people. And it was no different here.

Almost half a minute of complete silence went by, with Specter still searching for something in the glider's eyes. That one, single feeling. He has seen many things in that short time frame, but not what he really wanted to see.

It should stay that way for now, as the glider began to speak.

"Please... don't kill me... I... What have... I done to you? I don't... even know you... Please..."

Specter kept unfazed, keeping his mouth shut along with it. Soon after, the extended effects of his tactic showed. The glider's unsuccessful pleas turned into unintelligible whimpering, and tears began forming in her eyes.

All of this, however, abruptly stopped as he shot out with his other hand, now pinching her neck between two of his fingers.

 **"One more lie and I will snap your damn neck."** Came his daunting addition, in leaf-eater to emphasize how certain he was about this. The female's reaction to this was that she stared in overwhelming shock at him, if only for a brief moment. She stared away from him afterwards, but her look prior to this was all he ever needed to see to confirm what he knew anyway. Then he switched back to sharptooth. "You messed up my hunt, almost took my eye, and then fucked up her hunt, too. Let me tell you something... We have lost a good friend and leader, just yesterday. He sacrificed himself for us, was taken from us without mercy. There were only lies, betrayal and deception where we started our journey, and we've been on the move since then... Both of us have not eaten anything in almost two days by now. Two long fucking days... And had it not been for you, you and your fucking greed, we would've had a nice day for a change... But you don't care, do you? You only care about yourself, isn't that right? Give me just one damn reason why I should not kill you."

"No... No, it... It was an accident..." She replied hesitantly and shakily. "They... forced me... I... I didn't mean to... I would never... I... I didn't know... I'm... sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Following this, her head dropped and she went limp in his left hand, refusing to fight any further against her fate. Specter noticed this in satisfaction, even though he didn't get to see the look from her which he wanted to see. Fear, horror, confusion, regret. He had found each and every single one of those feelings multiple times in her eyes, but none of those interested him. Right now, though, it seemed like her word would simply have to do, he figured, and so he didn't hesitate with his judgement, didn't feel any concerns or doubts about it.

"Sorry is not good enough..."

 **Crack.  
**

That soft sound seemed to be as loud as a roaring Tyrannosaurus in the current silence, echoing through the night. A disgusting sound which went beneath everyone's skin. Not the sound of cracking bones, though, but of joints. Specter exhaled and slowly retracted his right hand, relaxing the muscles in his three fingers there after all this tension. But he kept his left hand firmly shut.

"No, I will not kill you. I'm not a murderer, and you don't deserve to die like this." He continued in a bit more neutral tone which then turned into sobriety. "But neither will I let you go like that."

It took the glider what seemed like ages to realize that she was still alive, that he had not broken her neck by giving his fingers an indifferent twitch. Then she slowly raised her head and restored an unsure eye contact with Specter. He didn't soften up his stern gaze at all, but it lost the anger it carried before. Now it carried a plan, a plan that would soon be set in motion, whether this glider liked it or not.

Still, he was gambling here, he knew this very well. The stakes were not high at all, yet also not really low enough for him to risk losing them. Not to mention that he found the small sharptooth to be in his debt right now. But he knew just as much that killing the little raptor like that would benefit nobody. With this glider, he had an ace in his imaginary, feathery pocket for the job that still needed to be done. Now was the time to draw that card, soon the time to play it.

"I did a little bit of scouting just before you two arrived." He deadpanned. "Apparently, the leaf-eaters from earlier are still around. You know, those who you have warned of me. And I believe you also know very well who my original target was."

"Y... Yes... But... What..." The glider tried to speak up before almost choking on her own words in her still very prominent fear. She had to gulp audibly, only then she was able to continue. "What do you still need me for, then?"

"Simple." Specter answered. "The oldest one of them. He is their leader, and I've chosen him as my target for several reasons. It was you who has warned his herd, so it will be you whom he will trust. He would be smart to do so, at least. And if he doesn't, make him trust you. Think of something, I don't care what. Fly there, get him to leave his herd and lead him to us. I bet they will leave this area quite soon, so you better be quick. We will do the rest. You do that, we're even... Mostly."

The glider gulped again, the agitated undertone in his voice gave her no other option. But ultimately, she offered a halfway firm nod. Specter returned this simple gesture, then looking back at Alba. She had not touched her kill, was just standing there and waiting.

"Forget about that guy." Specter said dismissively, pointing at the mangled Dimorphodon. "I don't know about you, but I think we deserve something more filling after all this crap. So, shall we?"

Though Alba seemed to be very unsure about his plan, she nodded as well and joined his side to move out into the night.

* * *

Only around ten minutes of speedy, northbound movement went by until the two fastbiters stopped, now standing in front of moderately extensive flora. And it was also only now that Specter softened up his grip around the Changyuraptor, something she took full advantage of by taking multiple very hasty, deep breaths in his hand. Which then stopped as Specter took an audible breath of his own.

"This should do. This is where the two of us will ambush him. From here, the herd is close enough for you to get the drop on them, as well."

"Do you think?" Alba now spoke up, a lot of doubt in her voice. "They're right ahead, yes, but that's at least ten longneck-lengths away, maybe even more. And she can't fly. She's a glider."

That obvious statement was followed by nervous twitches from the small raptor, Specter noticed easily why, of course, but he had just the reply for this.

"Don't worry, I'll make her fly." He answered with a faint grin which he only showed to Alba, turning his attention back to his forelimbs. This was now followed by an asking look from the glider, at least until Specter slowly opened his left hand and flexed his neck around to look at his own behind. "Hold on to my tail until I give the signal."

The sudden freedom and huge fastbiter looking away from her obviously gave the glider a lot of ideas, but she realized that most of them would end unhealthy. Besides, she didn't want to help the two sharpteeth because they forced her to do so, like those flyers had. She did it for an entirely different reason, though she did not understand that this was exactly what the male sharptooth had gambled on. So instead of trying to flee again, she did as the massive fastbiter commanded, jumped out of his paw, on his back, climbed on his immensely long tail right up to its tip, letting herself hang down from it with her forelimbs, and waited. She didn't understand at all what this strange, feathered sharptooth planned on doing now, and she wanted to express that.

But she should not even get the chance to open her mouth, as Specter bent his tail all the way to one side, raised his leg on the other side and then mirrored his move, swinging his tail with full force diagonally towards the above.

"Now!"

The glider let go right at the last moment and shot up into the night sky, extended her wings, circled once and actually allowed herself to do a barrel roll before gliding towards where Specter pointed out the leaf-eaters would be. Specter himself on the other hand allowed himself an honest, satisfied smile. Mostly because he would soon be allowed to feast on some fresh meat and share that moment with Alba, but also because he was certain that he has made the right decision.

 _This will be good... Third time's the charm, after all. However, if she fucks this up... or tries to fuck me over... I'll be done with my leniency... Then... I will...  
_

"I didn't know you could be this scary." Alba remarked from right next to him, making Specter aware of his surroundings again.

"Neither did I..." He started in a bit of jest, shrugging once. Then his voice turned serious, though. "I shouldn't have done this to her, but she owes both of us. A lot. I am very forgiving when there's a reason to do so, like I had with you, but there is only so much I can accept." Following this, he looked at her and changed up his voice to a very formal one. "I'm guessing the flyer you killed was one of those 'they', who 'forced her', right?"

"Yes, that's what I think happened."

"What else did you hear? Every detail helps."

"Well, they didn't talk much, and I only got to hear the last part. I'd say... she probably owed those flyers something, they took advantage of her, and betrayed her in the end." She returned in her usual, dry tone. "Even so, do you really trust her story?"

"For the most part, yes, I believe her." Specter responded instantly, but also very contemplatively. He noticed that Alba didn't quite share his opinion, judging by the uneasy look on her face, which he was glad about and something he wanted to talk with her about soon enough anyway, so he decided to explain. "Everyone deserves a second chance. I think she showed remorse, so I decided to grant her that chance. I have given her the opportunity to free herself from debt, and that is why she will do as I said. Still... Once we're done here, I want her to tell me that story. Then I will decide if I really want to forgive her..."

"I see." Alba just said acceptingly, turning her attention towards the as of yet unseeable herd in the distance.

Specter presumed that nothing more would come from her until the actual hunt started, so he wanted to use the time to set some things straight.

"While we're waiting..."

"Yes?" Alba asked when she noticed that Specter hesitated a bit, turning her full attention back to him.

"What am I to you?"

That sudden question left her pretty dumbstruck for a moment, as it had multiple, very possible meanings indeed. She hesitated, but then decided to give the most blatant answer.

"What... do you mean? You're my friend, of course."

"Yeah, I know..." Specter responded with another smile. "But... you never really questioned my word so far. You obviously don't like what I'm doing here, and I just don't want you to..."

"Accept you as my leader?" Alba finished for him, leaving Specter surprised now. "Why would I not? You're the bigger sharptooth. And you know Seeker, and the way there. Is that... a problem for you?"

"Yes... No... I mean..." He sighed in exhaustion, thinking about how to put it. "It's just that... See, in my old life, I was trained to become a leader. I was trained to listen, to understand, to take responsibility not only for myself but for others, too. And I always thought I could do it, leading others to happiness and success... But it's different in this time... That's why I don't want to be anything like a leader to you. I don't want you to... blindly follow my 'orders'. One bad decision and you could die... I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if let that happen..."

"But you won't let that happen. I know you won't."

Alba's grave, yet very honest words were just another one of those wake-up calls for Specter, feeling like she had gently given him a verbal tail slap to make him regain his confidence. It worked out in some ways, in others not. He couldn't find the right words in this case. He was just too uncertain about this, and his answer should reflect that.

"Just... promise me that you will never stop doing this... Never stop telling me off or letting me hear your opinion."

"I promise." Alba said firmly, still wearing a smile, which earned her a dear nuzzle from Specter.

"Good. Thanks." Came his grateful conclusion. Then he carefully analyzed every scent he managed to pick up for a few seconds, making sure that there was enough time for this, before speaking up again. "One more thing... We have never hunted together. You know, just the two of us without any support. It probably won't matter in the end, but I'd like to make sure everything goes smooth from now on. And you have been playing this game for much longer than I have. So, what do you suggest?"

 _Hm... Not even... Shade... had thought about this when it really mattered..._ Alba quickly pondered Specter's words, remembering how her first meeting with Chaser went. But she forced herself to not drift off to those memories, as this might've led her to question her past behavior otherwise, like if it had been the right decision to stop Chaser from killing Shade.

"I'm not sure..." She then stated honestly, and not only because it was the first time in her life that she has been asked for a definitive plan. "But we took down that fastbiter from yesterday together as well, didn't we? So... do what you always do, and I will think of something."

It was risky and not exactly what he had expected coming from Alba, but Specter couldn't really disagree with her logic. Even if it really was only plain luck on the last day, he had to admit that it has felt like as if he and Alba already were a deep-seated team with years of experience, after that short fight against Morso. And if she would just use her own experience to read and adapt to his moves, enhancing her understanding of his way of thinking, they would probably become quite the deadly duo in the future. Though, he was aware of the fact that this was a bilateral relationship. He had to read and adapt to Alba's moves, too.

But for now, he would just do what he always did. Using his size and weight to overpower his prey. This was anything but the hunting style he had in mind when he first arrived in this time, yet it still was the easiest and most straightforward for him.

"Very well. But don't complain afterwards that I've stolen you all the... Ow!"

Alba's more forceful nip on his sensitive arm feathers cut his playful taunt short. And just in time, too, as Specter now noticed that two scents were closing in on their position. Two scents he knew all too well. Though his face was still a bit contorted in mild ache, he had to grin widely, very much feeling pumped and looking forward to this.

"See? Told you. And now... Let's hunt..."

* * *

"And you're sure the other one is not here?"

 **"Yes. I would never have proposed this to you, if I were unsure."**

"Good... Then it is finally time for this disgusting abomination of a sharptooth to see what loss feels like... However, I still don't believe in your reasons. You are a sharptooth as well. Why would you help us?"

 **"You do not need to know about my reasons, just know that this is something very personal... Your nephew, my parents and sisters..."  
**

"Ah, so it is revenge... or is it prevention?"

 **"Neither... It's compensation... You figure..."  
**

"I figure that you are very nervous... Might there be a reason for that?"

 **"I... No, there is not. I just... finally have the chance to get even with that bastard... To be free again."**

"Hm... I see... Well, maybe a few of you sharpteeth actually seem to have..."

 **Shluck! Thud! Slice!** **Shluck!**

And in a matter of seconds, the unusual conversation was over. Forever.

Emerging from out of the darkness, Specter had done his usual thing whenever he was dealing with moderately big prey like most adult Hadrosaurs. A full-force pounce to one side, already gravely injuring his target with his two lethal sickle claws, to violently throw it over on its other flank, keeping it pinned to the ground. The following part had been Alba's doing, namely appearing from Specter's opposing side, jumping on the leaf-eater's just about prone form and then precisely piercing the Altirhinus' throat at a critical point, killing it almost instantly.

As soon as the final, shocked, surprised, shuddering breath of life vanished from the leaf-eater, Specter and Alba both exchanged looks, nonverbally congratulating each other on a hunt well and swiftly executed. Then they jumped off their prey, joining sides, analyzing their handiwork again for another quick moment.

"Well?" Specter spoke up when he noticed that this 'quick moment' turned into almost half a minute of continued silence. "What are you waiting for? You have the honors."

And it took Alba seemingly just as long to understand the implications. For the first time in years, she was allowed to have the first bite again. Had Specter tried to indirectly grant her this by letting her work out this 'plan', to just let him do his thing, she asked herself. Thus, had he held back and waited for her to act and claim the kill for herself? Had he actually thought this through, too?

In any event, she showed a quick sign of gratitude by nuzzling his flank. Then she closed in on the leaf-eater's belly and wasted no time digging into her kill.

As mildly disgusting as the sight of a feasting carnivore from an external point of view to him still was and probably always would be, Specter smiled faintly at it. Though, honestly, also because this sight, and especially the scents, forced his senses to be on overdrive, forcing him to keep his instincts and desires in check for now along with that. After all, before he would sate his hunger, there was one last thing left to do.

"Well done." He said towards the dead leaf-eater first, only afterwards slowly turning to whom he actually wanted to tell this to.

The reason for this rather unusual succession was that he had never expected the red-feathered glider to stick around. He certainly wouldn't have if he were in her position, he figured. But she was indeed still there, lying on her back and staring up at him, as she obviously had to get out of the way quickly, once two such big Utahraptors wreaked havoc upon a single Hadrosaur, without any prior warning as well. Though the glider's eyes were once more filled with fear, she didn't even move a single muscle. And Specter noticed this, so he decided to act now before it was too late.

However, just as he even did as much as raise his foot to walk over to her, the Changyuraptor snapped out of it, rolled over and jumped multiple of her own lengths backwards. Specter immediately stopped his planned movement in response, and presented a passive, non-aggressive stance.

"Are we 'even' now?" The glider spoke first, using the gravest voice she could apparently manage.

"Yes, we are." Specter gave his calm response.

"Then I'll be leaving..." She immediately retorted and spun around.

"Wait!"

Surprisingly, the little raptor did exactly that, froze in her tracks and flexed her neck around to look at him again. Her look was very much unreadable at this point, being somewhat a combination of emptiness, annoyance and anger. Knowing that he most likely would not achieve anything with his words now, Specter quickly turned back to the dead leaf-eater and carefully used his sharp claws to cut out a fitting piece of meat. Alba did not let this bother her, but she still showed a bit of interest in what he planned on doing now, even though it was pretty obvious.

"I'm sorry I made you do this." Specter said, presenting the piece of meat to the small female. "Alba here told me a little bit about what she overheard when she found you and that flyer... Knowing those types, my guess is that you didn't even get to eat anything from that leaf-eater you stole from me." He paused there for just a second, analyzing the glider. He could see that she frowned a bit and nodded after hearing this. With that confirmed, Specter got to the point. "So, you did what I asked of you. And you did it very well. Thank you."

Having said that, he shortly bowed his head, lowered himself to the ground and stretched out his right hand with the meat in it. The glider hesitated for several seconds, she seemed surprised but distrustful of his sudden, kind gesture. Yet ultimately, though very slowly and carefully, she moved towards him. Until she was standing right in front of his paw.

Specter could only let out a faint sigh as he jerked his hand upwards.

 **Thud.**

That was the sound of the piece of meat hitting the ground, the glider now firmly restrained in Specter's hand once more.

"Hey! Let me go! You... You damn bastard! You said we're even!"

"I said mostly even. I also said I won't let you go like this." He responded dryly. "Now, tell me about those flyers. What did they want from you, and why?"

She tried to get out of his firm grasp for almost ten more seconds, not giving an answer just yet. But after that, same as before, she went completely limp, looked up at him in defeat, sighed in exhaustion and slowly started talking.

"They're... siblings. There were once six of them... five, after tonight... Several cycles of the Night Circle ago, I was... just hunting some food... Scaly crawlers, ground crawlers... I don't need much... It went well, until I chased after a gliding scaly crawler... That's when... I met their leader. She was hunting as well... She went after the same crawler as I did... I flew right into her... I was so focused on that stupid crawler... I wasn't careful enough... She lost balance, hit a tree, injured her wing... She couldn't fly anymore... But she wasn't even angry at me, so I wanted to make it up to her... I caught her many crawlers, she thanked me, said it was fine, her wing would heal and I'd have nothing to worry about... The next day, her siblings came to find me..."

Specter began to frown noticeably, as he could very much guess what had slowly become out of her 'relationship' with the small flyers. There were still some odd things, though, like why insectivorous Dimorphodons would want her to kill actual dinosaurs, but he wanted to let her continue right until she was finished.

"They told me their sister still couldn't fly... that they'd kill me if I wouldn't bring her food from now on... I just did as they wanted for some time... and she always thanked me for it... It tired me, but I thought I could handle it, that they would leave me alone in time... But then, at some point... they found out that I could speak leaf-eater... They were nearby when I asked a longneck if I could have the crawlers from his treestars... They didn't want buzzers and crawlers anymore, from then on... It started with hatchlings... but they became greedier every time they came to me... then they wanted me to lure younglings away from their parents... and then was today... They said their sister was almost able to fly again, something to celebrate... I thought they would finally let me go if I gave them something really big... But to kill something big... I needed to find a big sharptooth... Namely... you... But I didn't mean to injure you... I really did not... And... when I showed them the dead leaf-eater, she came... flying... like nothing ever happened... She only pretended... She used me... She said they would go back to hunting for themselves... to be ready for the Red Coasts, next warm time... that this leaf-eater would last them until then... and that they lost their use in me..."

At this point, her head dropped again in anticipation of her demise. She felt empty, her emotions sucked out.

"Why didn't you just leave?"

Specter's simple question caught her off-guard, making her frown in anger nonetheless.

"Because this is my home! It's all that I've left... I have no one else to come back to..."

From then on, there was silence for a while. Noticing this, she closed her eyes and waited. The fastbiter had obviously heard everything he wanted to hear, just to make her suffer a bit more before killing her. Maybe she had even brought this on herself by yelling at him.

But then, all of a sudden, the fastbiter opened his hand.

"What if I gave you someone to come back to?"

This made her rip open her eyes and almost fall out of his paw. But she was certain that this was just another taunt, just another attempt to toy with her. The fastbiter, though, was not done just yet.

"You're free to leave, of course, if you want to. I can't and won't force you to join us. We're running away ourselves right now, soon about to fight a fight that does not concern you. But you do realize that if you stay here, you will die, right? Do you really think those flyers will let you go now? Now that one of their own is dead?"

The glider didn't dare to give an answer to this. She knew that anything else would've been stupid. The fastbiter was right, after all.

"You're a competent, little hunter. You can even speak leaf-eater. I would be very happy to have you along on our trip. And so would she, right?" Specter continued, flexing his neck around to look at Alba, who had finished her meal by now and gave him a simple nod in response. "You know where our cave is. Tomorrow morning, we're moving on. Think about it."

Having said that, he lowered himself to the ground once more and put the Changyuraptor back on firm soil. Not saying any more words, the female glider grabbed the piece of meat he has given her and slowly went off into the darkness. And Specter would let her. She obviously needed time to think.

"Just one thing..." He spoke up anyway, just as she was about to disappear from his sight. "What's your name?"

"Xiang..."

"Specter. It was nice meeting you, in the end."

And after that final exchange of names, the glider disappeared in the underbrush.

Specter looked after her invisible form for a while longer, but ultimately turned around and walked back to the dead leaf-eater, joining Alba's side.

"Sorry for doing this without your consent... again... You're really fine with it?"

"I am. She doesn't need much to eat in the first place, and if you do that thing with your tail, we can use her to spot food and danger alike." Alba answered. "And now stop caring so much about others and eat already, fuzzball."

"I can't be helped..." Specter answered after an exhausted sigh with a faint smile, returning Alba's. Soon as he was done with this, however, he hungrily dug into the carcass, too. And while the metallic taste of blood greeted his senses again, there was one thing he was certain of.

He had judged correctly.

* * *

 **And so, finally, I have managed to finish this. And I think you might have already noticed what could've happened, looking at the very obvious cuts between the three chapters. Let me give you a very quick summary regardless. I turned 22 on the 10th or March, and had planned to release a little gift for all of you. I had planned to put the events from Chapter 23, 24 and 25 into one, which was to carry this one's heading. However, I quickly realized that I had massively overburdened myself, and so I had to somehow divide them. A single, 25,000 words Chapter would've been just too much, in my opinion. Still, think of Chapters 23 to 25 as one. :)**

 **So yeah, this is basically what happened. I didn't expect this to turn out this detailed.**

 **Having said that, I hope it was worth the wait and you guys find all three of them enjoyable. Now, I will not give another estimate as to when the next chapter might come up, as I will have a bit less time over this month and don't want to make any false promises. But what I can say is that it will be something 'different', just like Chapter 11 was back then, should it work out like I have planned.**

 **So, all in all, I hope you liked this trilogy of events, and as always:**

 **Take care, and until next time!**


	27. Chapter 26: Deception

**Chapter 26: Deception**

 ** _"Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception." - Niccolò Machiavelli  
_**

 **Two days earlier:  
**

The female fastbiter gazed upon the returning predators of all kinds and sizes in the distance, delighted green eyes in search for three sharpteeth in particular.

 _So it's done... They've been dealt with... After all this time... there is hope! Now we can finally...  
_

Her gradually lifting mood fell in an instant, however, when she noticed that visibly less of her companions came back than she had expected. The majority seemed healthy and unharmed, yet it caught her off-guard nonetheless that a single fastbiter, a so called 'White One' at that as well, and a single two-footer had apparently taken over ten of her acquaintances with them to their deaths. Sure enough, that two-footer had been none other than Sharptooth, but still. Something just seemed odd. Especially considering that this strange, dark blue, unfeathered fastbiter renegade called 'Shade' should've had a greater impact, in her opinion.

But, since she didn't know any details, neither about the fight nor about Shade, everything she could feel right now was shock.

 _So many fell? So many... died...?_

And as soon as that thought left her mind, fear overcame her. Immense fear. She couldn't care less about being one step closer to the 'big goal' at this point.

 _Oh no... no... Skull... Decay... and Mist... Where are you...? Please don't..._

But then she could finally make out at least one of her two siblings, a tall fastbiter male with simple, mostly dark grey feathering and spots of white on his forelimbs and tail. He was walking pretty much at the front, yet still almost blended in with the other predators, and seemed completely untouched.

"Decay!" She happily exclaimed, immediately sprinting off towards and embracing him.

Decay accepted and returned the gesture, yet continued to wear the grave, indifferent expression on his face. It was all part of the plan, after all, and he couldn't reveal this to any of the other sharpteeth which were passing by him and sister right now. They probably wouldn't even care, but his orders were clear. So he would wait this out and let her take the word next.

"I'm so glad you are alright!" His sister spoke up after a while, still embracing him, both siblings now almost standing together undisturbed. Then she let go of him and looked at everyone in sight once more before facing him again. "I can't believe so many didn't make it... Where's Skull? And Bloodhorn? And... Mist?"

Decay felt slightly annoyed by his sister's queries, though he couldn't really condemn her. To avoid those situations and talks with all of the other sharpteeth was exactly why Skull had cleverly proposed to divide everyone into two forces. The strike forces and the reserves. The strike forces were the ones who would get sent out to do the dirty work, such as earlier or with the herd of giant longnecks, usually only working together with their respective kinds, today being one of very few exceptions. Those were the ones with no real families or friends to return to, or simply those eager for a good fight, such as himself and Skull. And it evidently worked out like a charm, as he had observed earlier, at least for the better part. It still needed some improvements, like never showing submission even when facing apparent defeat, never giving up, but he trusted Bloodhorn to eventually see to that. After all, the horned sharptooth himself now belonged to those who had absolutely nothing more to lose. That he had foolishly lost a considerable part of his tail only added to that. However, sadly, the strike forces consisted of noticeably fewer hunters than the reserves, especially after the recent fight, meaning they were dependent on each other to get what everyone desired.

And this was where his sister came in. She was just too kind-hearted for these tasks, yet still an immensely capable and loyal fastbiter, so she has been put in charge of the reserves. And she had, in a way, complicated this whole concept a lot by befriending one of the strike force members, Mist, around a Night Circle ago. Only when Mist coincidentally talked to Skull about her 'new friend' right before the fight has this been revealed, and it had been too late for adjustments at that point.

At least for adjustments in Mist's favor, Decay quickly thought to himself.

The problem now was, or rather what the problem could've potentially been, Mist was no more. In the event she actually somehow survived the fall into the ravine, her crippled body has probably been fished out of the water by a sailback sharptooth or bellydragger by now, along with the dark green two-footer.

 _All thanks to you, Bloodhorn... Hot-headed idiot... So predictable...  
_

However, Skull just had this habit of turning problems into solutions, Decay figured. Most of the time it has been his brother himself to create the problems in the first place, very true, but the outcome was always worth it. It was no different here, and actually playing them very much in their claws, though he was very unsure if the plan would work out in this case.

That was something Skull wanted to tell his sister by himself, though. Alone and face to face. Decay's job was much simpler.

Having never been a fastbiter of many words, he just looked his sister in the eyes, communicating for her to follow his gaze, and then nodded towards a point of interest behind her to her left. As soon as she turned around, albeit a bit confused, and found what he wanted her to notice, he quickly retreated, silently passed by her right flank and vanished in the crowd of sharpteeth again.

 _Skull...? He's alright, too! But... how did he get here so fast?_

"How...?" She tried to ask, quickly turning around again for a moment, but cut herself off upon noticing that her younger brother had disappeared.

She was used to his behavior, though, so she didn't question it and resumed to observe. Still, to say that she was surprised would've been an understatement. Of course she felt a lot more relieved now that she knew both her brothers had made it out alive, but she wondered nonetheless why Skull didn't return with the rest. After all, he was second in command after Bloodhorn, and the horned sharptooth was nowhere to be found yet.

 _Unless... Does that mean...? No, it can't be!_

She quickly dismissed those thoughts and focused solely on her oldest sibling, moving in on his position. By now, she settled with the possibility that Bloodhorn and Mist, and most of the other missing sharpteeth, had been injured in the fight and thus simply lagged behind a bit. Surely, they would still show up alive.

After a few moments of speedy movement, she noticed that Skull was standing on top of a moderately big rock, around three longneck-lengths away from her.

"Attention!"

Skull's deep and loud bark had the desired effect. Every single sharptooth in the vicinity immediately focused on him, slowly gathering around his elevated position. Until he was surrounded by uncountable masses of claws and feathers, complete silence in the air. The female fastbiter increased her pace and joined up with the others to hear what her brother would have to say next. For she knew that whatever it was, it would be highly important, maybe even give her some information right away.

"Today, we have achieved a great victory!" Skull continued when he was sure that he really had everyone's attention, maintaining the dominant tone in his voice. "Today, we have taken the biggest step! Today, we have shown that we are the best hunters in all of the lands! For as of today... the two-footer and his pack are no more!"

 **Roar! Roar! Roar!**

The combined roars from fastbiters, horned sharpteeth and other hunters almost made the ground tremble in fear, the air quivering along with it. The bigger predators even increased that effect by stomping in unison to their victorious shouts. The moment Skull slowly raised one of his feathered forelimbs, however, everyone went silent in an instant again.

"But, our fight is far from over. In fact, it has only just begun... There will be many more foes standing in our way, but we will overcome them as well! We will overcome _anyone_!" A longer pause followed as Skull observed his listeners, seemingly basking in their attention. But he was ultimately rather swift to finish his speech. "However, today, we shall not worry. Today, we shall feast! And so tonight, in this new territory of ours, we shall hunt!"

 **Roar!**

Once more, approving roars echoed through the lands, right before all of the sharpteeth scattered. They either returned to their resting spots or, as for most of those who had already participated in the battle against Chaser, immediately headed out for some hunting. They couldn't wait until later to spill some blood, it seemed. Skull noticed this is satisfaction as he jumped off his rock, wasting no time attending to the most important matter of this still young day. He had, of course, already seen his sister standing amongst the other sharpteeth, so he knew that Decay had done his part. Now, it was his own turn to finally set the plan in motion.

And as soon as he approached her, his sister embraced him, too. Unlike Decay, however, he maintained his stance, not returning the gesture.

"Discord..." Skull spoke to her before she could even think about raising her voice. "We need to talk."

The extreme seriousness in her brother's voice took her aback, and Discord almost lost all of her previous hopes about any potential laggards. Now she knew that something very bad must've happened to all those who did not return at this point, and it became more and more clear to her that she would maybe never see them again. Slowly, she let go of Skull and nodded hesitantly, afterwards following him some distance away.

When both of them found an isolated spot, Skull spoke up again.

"I'm afraid we underestimated them. The old fool put up a far better fight than I had expected, and his two allies managed to escape."

"What...? So... So it was him alone... who... killed all of them? Even... Bloodhorn... and...?" Discord tried to ask in return, also trying to be neutral about it, which she just could not.

"I fear so, yes. Not Bloodhorn, though." Skull said dryly, cutting his sister off before she had the chance to name her second and most important subject of concern, continuing before Discord had the chance to feel anything remotely to relief. "But he crippled him. Severely. Bit almost half his tail off. Don't expect him to hunt anytime soon again."

His sister contorted her face in disgust and anger, which Skull had to smirk about internally. Bloodhorn had brought this fate on himself with his reckless, boisterous actions, after all. It really couldn't have gone any better.

 _Hm._ _ _Your time will come, horn-face..._ But not yet. Not while you're still useful... Not while your lust for revenge still drives you... Not while you still don't know better...  
_

Having finished this quick line of thinking, Skull focused on the main topic again. He knew that from this point on, he would have to be utterly careful with his words and emotions alike. He would have to play around with the truth to get what he wanted. And he knew his sister wanted it, too. At the very least part of it, like everyone else. Just that she sometimes needed a little push. In light of that, brutal honesty first, followed by a few 'alterations'.

"At least he's alive..." Discord then stated. "But... what about Mist? What happened to her? She's just injured, right? She's with..."

"She's dead. I'm sorry, sister."

Even though she had somewhat seen that fact coming, Discord was completely overwhelmed by it. She and Mist had not been friends for long, but this didn't matter to her. On the few occasions they had hunted together, she had learned so much from that reclusive, cold fastbiter female. She had learned that there was more to her than fighting. She had learned that all Mist wanted was a new home, a new place to start over, maybe even start a family. Mist had given her hope in the times she wondered if all this bloodshed, all this death, was truly necessary, shown her what everyone fought and killed for.

But now, the last glimmer of hope that her good friend had survived was dead. And it showed. The moment Skull's sentence reached her ears, something inside of her broke apart. There was no hope or happiness anymore, just sadness and anger.

 **Screech!**

Which Skull could easily smell in her scents, not to mention see it in her broken posture and hear it through her piercing shriek she had just emitted. So it came as no surprise to him that Discord's usual demeanor and kind voice were completely wiped when she began to speak after some time.

"It... wasn't the two-footer... No... No, I know it wasn't him... Too simple... It was one of those cowards who ran away... isn't that right?"

Skull only nodded in silence, slowly guiding Discord towards her personal truth.

"You said _two_ escaped..." Discord went further, her voice and whole body still quaking with rage. "There were two all along... One of them must be this White One... But she didn't do it, either... Mist would never have succumbed to such a... such a pathetic... No... The other one killed her..." And it was at this point that she stopped looking at the ground, instead directly into her brothers' blue eyes. "Isn't that right?!"

His sister became more and more aggressive with each of her shuddering breaths, Skull noticed. She had her mind set now, he knew this very well. And all Discord wanted to know now, was a name. She wanted to know who to kill, who to blame for this.

However, Skull was not done quite yet. He still had to hold back that particular name a little longer. Telling it now would be just too obvious, too much of a lie. Telling it at all would be a lie under most circumstances actually, he was very well aware of that, too. It was extremely hard deceiving a sharptooth's sense of smell, after all.

But luckily, Decay had done the false observations for him, so that Skull himself would not be lying in the slightest with what he was about to say now.

"I fear I didn't see it happen myself. The fight was a mess." He responded calmly. "But Decay did... So what I do know for certain is that there was another big sharptooth involved. A big sharptooth with dark feathers... That sharptooth killed her, threw her down into the Great Divide when she had no way of defending herself. The fight was already over, but he didn't care."

"What. Is. His. Name?" Discord demanded in deep, clipped snarls.

This was the moment Skull had been waiting for, as he walked up to Discord and situated his head right next to hers, almost whispering out the name she wanted to hear.

"Specter."

"I. Will. Kill him." Discord immediately snapped, but not in a noisy tone, instead in ultimate coldness.

"And you shall. You shall have your vengeance." Skull affirmed, hiding his smirk. The hard part was over, the rest would be just the usual. Just simple orders. He pulled back his head, assuming a dominant stance. "But in time. Not now. He's dangerous enough, not stupid enough and not alone right now. I think the boss and I have come up with quite a nice solution for this little predicament, however."

Hearing this seemed to calm Discord from uncontrollable rage to murderous obedience. And how could it not, Skull asked himself. After all, even though few actually knew his real name, the term 'boss' alone was reason enough for any sharptooth to listen and obey. If the boss had a plan, absolutely everyone would follow. And that not even out of fear. Not at all. No, something far, far more powerful than that. Something that kept all those different kinds of sharpteeth together.

"They escaped through the mountains. It will slow them down, and there's only one place those paths ultimately lead."

"Our old home... Bones and ashes... So much death..." Discord named that place aloud, the rest of this sentence muttered to herself.

"Indeed." Skull went further. "And thus you will meet him precisely there. Get him to trust you. Join him. Assist him. Hunt with him. Fight with him. Protect him with your life, if you must. And then... when the right moment comes... have your revenge."

Only two simple, firm nods should be exchanged between the two siblings. The most clear and undoubted gesture of approval. There had not even been a fraction of hesitation from Discord, obviously neither from Skull.

And following this, Skull slowly raised his claws and presented his combat posture.

"And now, let's give him reason to trust you..."

* * *

 **The present:**

"Still no sight or scent of her... The Bright Circle is already up for a while, Specter. Are you absolutely sure this isn't a waste of time?"

A sigh could be heard coming from the black-feathered fastbiter as he raised the right side of his head out of the water.

"Honestly, I am not... I just thought she would be more reasonable than that... Staying here to die when she could've come with us... But I guess I didn't quite make the best of impressions..." He answered in disappointment. Specter submerged his head in the water for one last time, cleaning the last bits of blood from the minor wound on his face, before he shook himself dry and faced Alba. "Well, her life, her choices. You're right, we shouldn't waste time here. Let's eat our fills for today and move on."

Alba nodded in consent and went out into the open, but Specter didn't follow after her just yet. Before he would leave this nice, little cave forever, he wanted to see something once more. Himself, as unusual as that might've sounded.

It would be a very overcast, most likely rainy day. The sun has barely been up for more than an hour, and it would soon already disappear behind the massive clouds for the rest of this day. But for now, this meant that it brought light into the otherwise very dark cave, which had the entrance luckily facing eastwards. That light also illuminated the watering hole, which was sadly not crystal clear anymore but instead visibly tainted with the Altirhinus blood Specter and Alba had washed off their muzzles before going to sleep, yet it was still clear enough for Specter to take another look at the massive Utahraptor he was.

So he rolled over on his feet, adjusted his position and simply stared down at his reflection. Seemingly for ages, almost mesmerized by his very own appearance at this point.

In contrary to the last time he had seen himself, which was in the puddle of Chaser's footprint, he actually liked what he saw. He saw an overall much more competent hunter and fighter now, one equal to his expected tasks, one he was satisfied being, yet he couldn't help but ask himself a question.

 _Is this still me? Are you still me, Specter? Or have I become you...?_

The changes he had gone through were the reason for this. Not only his internal changes, but most of all external ones. Though he looked nowhere near as imposing as dinosaurs like Chaser, Shade, Magno, Doc or Topps when it came to visible scars, his time in the Outlands had certainly taken its toll on his body. He could still see where Morso's spear had grazed his neck and where Shade's foot claws had struck his chest, and this red-feathered glider from yesterday had even given him a considerable, soon-to-be scar just behind his right eye.

Ironically, it was the wound that the smallest sharptooth of those three had inflicted on him which troubled him the most.

 _I've gotten so close to losing my eye... So close... Just because of a stupid accident..._ _ _Oh, stop being such a pathetic crybaby, Specter! I have the immune system of a dinosaur now..._ I can survive far worse than that... Seeker had his fricking throat cut open and lived... Not even going to start about Chaser... I've endured nothing compared to someone like him... but I guess now I look at least a tiny bit as dangerous as you, Chaser..._

And he couldn't decide if he liked it this way or not, as he connected just too many emotions to that two-footer, of which by far not all were positive.

Ultimately, however, Specter refused to waste any more time with pondering his own self. Alba was probably already finished with eating, and he still needed to have his own fill for this day without overstressing his stomach by eating his meal in too much of a rush. His right eye was working normally by now as well, there was no need to make sure of that for yet another time, he deduced.

So he turned away from the watering hole, walking towards the illuminated exit of the cave.

Arriving outside, he was surprised to see Alba's white skin, scales and claws clean of any blood. She was standing in front of the shredded Altirhinus corpse they had dragged here together last night, and seemed deeply lost in her thoughts. It was an unusual sight indeed, so Specter joined her side and noticed that Alba was looking into the leaf-eater's widely opened, dead, empty eyes.

"Are you alright?" He then simply asked ahead. "You didn't have to wait for me, you know."

"It's not that..." Alba answered, looking at Specter now. "I've just been wondering... You always close their eyes... You even did that to this fastbiter who tried to kill you... But you didn't do it to this one."

"Oh, that..." Specter took a small pause, thinking about if he wanted to be brutally honest with her. He decided to be that, in the end. "Well, because _you_ killed him. Sure, I helped, but it was you who ultimately took his life. And I'm only doing this to those I personally kill and, most often, eat. It's my personal way of showing them my last respects, and I wouldn't want to force this on you or anyone else."

It made Specter loosen up a lot that Alba took his bluntness like he had expected from an adult Utahraptor such as herself.

"Respects... I see... But then I can't understand why you're doing it at all. You always seem so... unhappy, afterwards. Why do that to yourself?"

"How could I not?" Specter asked into the distance. "It's easy killing them when they're just sources of food, isn't it? But when you can actually understand them..."

"It's not that, either." Alba corrected him when she understood that Specter wouldn't finish his sentence anyway. "I've never seen them only as food, but also not much more than that. Too much happened... What you told me about their language doesn't change that, to be honest. What I mean is... We are so different from another. I can't understand so many of those things you told me... I'm trying so hard but... I just can't... So I thought I could at least relate to you, figure you out, understand you, whenever we hunt, but..."

"You still can't." Specter finished for her, sighing in reaction to Alba's admitting nod. "Look, I am fine with hunting and killing. I really am. But in my old world, you usually didn't get the chance to see your food still alive, let alone kill it yourself. You usually had others doing it for you. It's their job, and they're doing it in a different place, because you had different things and jobs to do in your own life. And yes, you basically did it for me, too, yesterday... but... I was there and... Hmm... Did I tell you about the little dinosaurs from my time?"

The seemingly sudden change in topic surprised Alba, though she kept neutral about this.

"You mean... uhm... 'birds'?"

"Birds, yes, but they already live with us right at this moment. Just that they look very... exotic, as of now. No, I mean those that were especially similar to dinosaurs. Those I used to eat quite often."

It took Alba quite a bit to remember the name for that kind of bird, as she still had big problems understanding why there even used to be so many, almost uncountable amounts of names for generally similar things in Specter's time.

"'Chickens'... right?" Alba asked in the end, feeling very relieved when Specter nodded at this. Though she couldn't understand what those now had to do with Specter's behavior, she definitely wanted him to see that she had listened to all of his stories and explanations.

Little did she know that Specter very much intended on shattering her relief and destroying her mood.

"Them. And you see, chickens were treated even worse than all the other animals I used to eat..."

"Even... worse...?" Alba questioned almost in disbelief as she remembered far too well how most of the 'food' in Specter's time had been handled.

"Even worse than worse..." Specter went further. "They were actually quite smart for their size and made good pets. Speaking of which, pets were like special companions to humans... You gave them a home, cared for and fed them and all that, and in return had a friend like none else, even though you never shared a language. Like my dog. Anyway, the point is... A chicken's life was worth nothing. Absolutely nothing. There were just so many of them, many times the amount of humans. And if they're not lucky enough to hatch on a nice farm where they're cared for, or ended up with a caring owner... they lived a life not worth living. The unlucky ones, they are the ones I want to tell you about... They hatched in warmth, but still in coldness. No parents to care for them, just cold, lifeless machines that moved them towards their fate. Many chicks already died when they're washed soon after hatching, barely alive some of them instantly suffer to death. But it didn't stop there... Because then, the males were separated from the females. Like worthless trash, the males got thrown away to be killed on the spot. One after another, they were gassed, or simply ripped apart in a meat grinder. They died a quick death, but a death more disgusting than getting stomped on by a longneck..."

"But... But why...?" Alba demanded in honest shock and disgust.

"Because they're way less useful than the females when it came to food. And it's simple, really. Males don't lay eggs, give less meat and can be a handful to control once they're older. It's just as it is, even now. However, I consider the males actually the lucky ones. They didn't have to live through the following, at least..."

She already felt like she was going to vomit her food from yesterday night up at this practice, so she didn't even want to imagine what would follow next. What could be even worse than that fate? And though she would have liked Specter to stop right there, Alba kept silent. Mainly because the black fastbiter rarely, if not never, talked about such things without reason, rarely talked this much at all.

"So, the females stayed alive. But that never meant a happy life. No, first, they had half of their beaks burned off so that they wouldn't peck at each other in fear, because they're so constrained amongst hundreds, thousands even. Imagine a massive, burning hot claw cutting half your snout off, just so you couldn't bite anymore. This is what is was like for them. Their painful screams would echo through the air, but nobody would care. Nobody would understand. Most wouldn't see, even more wouldn't even know..."

In the longer pause that followed, Alba continued to stare at Specter in emptiness. To him, she looked like as if she was about to have an emotional breakdown at any moment. He noticed this, of course, so he decided to wrap this up prematurely and skip the rest. There wasn't a need for him to continue beyond this horrible procedure, he figured.

"This was my world. I knew. I saw. I cared. And I couldn't do a useful thing about it. Many would tell to just stop eating meat, but that's just a bunch of stupid nonsense. What good would that have done? If anything, the conditions for our food would've gotten even worse yet again. You just couldn't change it. This practice was just too established. So I continued to eat their meat, trying not to think too much about it. And that is what I'm trying to tell you with this... I never got to see my food live, suffer and die for me like I do now, until I became a fastbiter. As a human, meat would be meat to me. Just dead meat. And so I always thought killing would be easy. Surely, I would have no problems at all with killing my own food. But there I was together with Seeker on my first hunt, a huge fastbiter now, forced to take two lives, still deceiving myself. This is why, Alba. This is why I am willing to do that to myself, make myself unhappy and thoughtful. And this is also why you shouldn't try to understand me, especially not when we're hunting."

For almost a minute, dead silence reigned over the two Utahraptors as both just looked at the leaf-eater corpse before their feet. A minute in which Specter heavily wondered if it had been a good idea to be this explicit to Alba, but ultimately decided that it was indeed. She had demanded his reasons, and he had elaborated them in all extensiveness. Maybe he could've softened it up a tad for her, but when it came to those things, honesty was his weapon of choice.

Though he did also wonder how to proceed now, given that Alba seemed completely stunned. Surprisingly, it was Alba who then suddenly made the first move.

She stepped forwards, lowered herself to the ground and closed the leaf-eater's eyelids. Or at least she tried to do so, as the corpse was already long since in the state of rigor mortis and thus completely stiff. Still, Specter was deeply moved by this, had never expected her to act like that. And yet, seeing her struggle with this gesture, he swiftly placed his forelimb on her back, gently pulling her away from the corpse.

"It's no use, you have to do that very soon after they die. It gets a lot harder afterwards. With him, it's pretty much impossible now." He explained, remembering how he had almost gouged Morso's eyes out with his claws a day ago in his effort to shut them a bit more forcefully. It was just simple luck for him that the red fastbiter's eyelids had already been half-closed after his death.

Specter's words were meant to comfort Alba, but they achieved the exact opposite. Her head dropped and she now looked at the ground, scents of deep sadness radiating from her.

"Not even this I can do right... Not even this I can understand... Some kind of friend I am..."

"Hey..." Specter responded softly, but very determinedly, making Alba slowly turn to face him with an unsure look on her face. "Many would think of me as just crazy, even with our sense of smell. Many would've left me to fend for myself already. But you didn't. You're still here. And you still listen to all this stuff I could just as well have made up. Which is why you are one of the best friends there are. You're right up there, trust me. Don't you ever doubt yourself on that, ok?"

And to add to his words, Specter offered her a quick hug. Which finally had the desired effect, as Alba relaxed noticeably. But he was not done quite yet with his words. So, after the two fastbiters stood face to face once more, he spoke up.

"But look... You're doing exactly what I never wanted anyone to do. _You_ are trying to adapt to _me_. Being my friend doesn't mean you have to think like I do, do things like I do, and so on... Just be yourself. I like you _because_ you're so different from me. That's why I asked you to always share your thoughts with me, and tell me off whenever I'm just wrong... You understand what I mean?"

"I... think so... Yes." Alba responded, a bit hesitantly, but deep inside, she was very serious about her statement.

"Good." Specter concluded. "Now let's eat some more and head out. Remember, no hunting today. We still have a long way ahead of us, and I wouldn't want to gamble on finding a rotten corpse to eat..."

Having said that, the two raptors dug into their kill for the second time. Specter found that this conversation definitely had been worth losing another fifteen minutes of time, and he felt better himself now, too, after sharing his honest thoughts with his friend. It also overshadowed his absolute disdain of stuffing himself full when he wasn't really hungry, though there was at least a very good reason for that this time. It would save precious time and, unwittingly, an unknown, unaware leaf-eater's life.

When Specter's stomach had reached its limit, too, some time after Alba's, he glanced at the volcano in the distance once more.

 _So that was their territory, before... I happened... Their home... Need to be careful there, definitely... Who would ever return to see such a devastated place, though? Hmm... Still, gotta keep my eyes peeled... No nasty surprises..._

He wrapped up his thoughts and looked over at Alba.

"Ready?"

"Yes. Let's go." Came her firm response.

With that, stomachs filled and emotions settled, the two fastbiters began their trot onwards.

"Wait!"

They had taken merely five steps when that muttered, shy voice from behind prompted them to stop again. Turning around in surprise, Specter and Alba laid eyes on the little glider from last night, gliding towards them with something in her mouth. She landed right in front of the duo and placed a few small, wet leaves in her winged forelimbs.

"I... brought you these treestars... for your injury... And... I wanted to thank you again for the food, and... apologize for what I did."

"No need for that, don't worry." Specter responded, showing her the right side of his head. "It's closed now, we're sated, and I've already accepted your apology."

The Changyuraptor winced noticeably when she saw the cut in daylight she herself had inflicted on such a, to her, gargantuan fastbiter. Not only did that male sharptooth appear even larger than last night, as did his female companion, but she had also never expected that she was capable of such critical strikes. After all, just under half her claws' length less, and that mistake of hers would've cost the male fastbiter his eye. She was still surprised that he had not killed her for that.

"Oh..." The glider responded in disappointment, letting the leaves slip out of her grasp.

"So..." Specter then broke the awkward silence that had followed. "You're late, but you're here. Now, are... you coming with us... or not?"

No answer came outright, as the glider kept looking at the ground, thinking about what to say. Specter could already guess what at least some of her concerns were, so he quickly raised his voice again.

"And no, you will never have to do again what I made you do yesterday. No more deceptions. I promise." This sentence made her at least look up at him, though he was not done. He considered himself to be very kind on most occasions, but his kindness also had a limit. "But also no free rides. If you want to eat with us, you will at least spot the targets we might not be able to smell, from time to time. If you absolutely want to hunt for yourself, you're obviously free to do so, but then you will still keep an eye out for any danger. That's what I would be expecting of you, in return for your safety. Nothing more, nothing less."

The little raptor seemed unfazed by his demands, yet still didn't say anything, so there was apparently something else bothering her. By now, Specter was starting to become rather annoyed with these hold-ups, still, and thus decided to push her a bit.

"I know you're thinking about it right now, so just spit it out. Tell me. What's the matter?"

"It's just that..." The glider finally spoke up. "I have spent my entire life here... This is my home. I don't want to leave it behind for something so... uncertain."

"Even though that means your death? Because that _is_ very much certain now, should you stay here. Come on, you cannot be serious." Immediately after this statement, though, Specter sighed audibly to stay neutral. He had never really felt an overly strong connection to something like 'home', but he figured that if this small female had, he wasn't in a position to judge. And then, an idea crossed his mind. "Alright, I understand... But as I said, I might be able to give you a new home. A better home. We're most likely going to stop by the Great Valley on our trip. You're a sharptooth, but maybe they would let you..."

"The... The Great Valley?" The glider sputtered. "You know where it is...?"

"I do. Well, mostly... Anyway, I hope to have made some friends in my short time there. And since there already is another glider living there, I'm sure they would let you stay as well. Though, you _are_ a lot bigger than him, so I can't really promise you anything..."

"There is another glider...? And he's a male?"

"And he's not of your kind, so don't get your hopes up." Specter said dryly, but with a smirk, inadvertently destroying her just about lifting mood. "But I'd say it's worth taking a chance, don't you think?"

Following this, Specter lowered himself to the ground, stretched out his forelimb and bent it, expecting an answer from her via a clear reaction.

The glider was indeed torn, nervous and afraid, pondering this decision heavily for yet another time. She had already lost count which time it was by now. The possibility of this moment had kept her awake for the whole night, along with her fear that the group of flyers might 'visit' her. Even though she had thought that she would be able to decide about this without a moment's hesitation, she just couldn't. It all seemed so strange. Too strange.

From where would this fastbiter possibly know the Great Valley, and some of its inhabitants? Even if she would make it there, what if the residents rejected her because they deemed her to be too dangerous to stay?

The worst thing was, she simply was not able to smell out lies, like pretty much every sharptooth bigger than herself could. She was a hunter, yes, even capable of killing small dinosaurs on her own, but since the Great Circle of Life had never intended for her to become a pack hunter, she was forced to trust the words alone of leaf-eaters and other sharpteeth alike. And she knew how that had worked out for her with this black-feathered fastbiter already. What would assure her that this fastbiter wasn't planning on keeping her as an emergency snack? So, although it was only to give her at least some peace of mind, she resorted to ask for an assurance.

"You promise me... that you will be true to your words? You promise me that you won't hurt me, or force me to do anything like last night?"

Specter rolled his eyes in mix of slight amusement and annoyance, retracted his forelimb for a few moments and pointed at his right eye.

"Cross my heart and hope to die, have a claw slice out my eye."

And that statement hit her like a rock. Was that honestly jest in the fastbiter's voice? She had expected anything but that from this sharptooth. But for some reason, it was all she ever needed and wanted to hear, something that made her even smile for the blink of an eye as she made up her mind.

Then finally, although it almost took her another ten seconds of time, the glider took heart and hopped on Specter's arm.

"Wise decision." He said with a friendly smirk, rising back to his full height, already joining Alba's side again. "Just one more thing we need to settle... Your name."

"What... about my name...?" The glider asked in confusion and surprise.

"We can't pronounce it." Alba said in Specter's place, having noticed that he was very much feeling embarrassed admitting that.

 **"And I can't do it in leaf-eater either."** Specter added, switching back to sharptooth. "I didn't think too much of this at first, but now it really intrigues me. Where did you get that name from? And why does it sound like a... succession of chirps?"

The glider looked away from both fastbiters, up at the shrouded skies.

"Could I... explain this later? It's... something very personal, and..."

"If you don't want to, you don't have to explain at all. But you need a name all of us can use, wouldn't you agree? And since we're technically a real pack now, this only seems fitting."

Having said that, he mustered the perching Changyuraptor on his arm for a while. Since he never was an overly creative mind when it came to these things, however, he couldn't come up with many options as to how he wanted to name the small female. Taking special attention in her overall blazing red feathers, he ultimately found something she might like.

"How about... Blaze?"

"Blaze?" The glider, and Alba in fact, asked in unison, to which Specter could only chuckle lightly.

"Well, you've got guts for such a small sharptooth. Like when you stole that leaf-eater from me? I certainly wouldn't have come even near a fastbiter such as myself, not even with my life on the line. And to use my face just to gain some more speed was... an interesting move, too. Not to mention throwing your target down the ledge. You could've broken all your bones, had you hit the leaf-eater in the wrong place. You're braver than you might think."

The glider kept interestingly neutral about this compliment from him, Specter noted to himself before he continued.

"So, you like it?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I think I do." Came the response, which she uttered in a lot happier tone than before.

"Alright, good. So, now that that's settled, I would really like to get going."

Following Specter's words and his nod towards his backside, Blaze hopped on his back and curled up between his feathers right at the base of his neck. Not only was this an extremely comfortable position, as Specter's feathers were indeed very soft, but it was also safe from his teeth and claws. It was one of the very few dead zones even an immensely agile fastbiter had. Blaze trusted his words, but only time would ultimately give her real certainty, she deduced.

And the moment she closed her eyes, she dropped off, all her exhaustion taking over.

Specter smiled briefly at this sight before he looked at Alba, and both fastbiters simultaneously returned to their attempted trot from earlier. Just that this time, nobody would interrupt it anymore.

"We're stopping by the Great Valley?" Alba immediately asked after only two seconds of movement.

"Hopefully, yes. I had planned to tell you just about now anyway. I need to have a talk with the rainbowfaces and inform the residents what they're up against. They have to know what's going on here. I'm sure that if they know, they'll help. Besides, I might have to request a messenger flyer to inform Seeker that I'm alive and bringing a friend. Better safe than sorry."

"Agreed." Alba responded, taking a quick look at the sleeping form of Blaze on Specter's back, lowering her voice a little regardless. "I take it that... I won't get to hear much more about yourself now, with her around?"

"Probably, yes... I absolutely don't want to have anyone else but you and the pack know about my past. Again, safety reasons." Specter gave his answer in some of his own disappointment that he would have to watch out for his words from now on, pointing at the place on his neck where Morso's spear had wounded him upon finishing his sentence.

Having concluded this, the two Utahraptors focused their attention on the horizon, where in the distance, merged into the gargantuan mountains which embraced the outlines of the Great Valley, the massive, destroyed volcano could be seen. The Smoking Mountain, as it was known. This was the place where Specter's journey had just begun. And this sight, although it was indeed as terrifying as it was beautiful, foreboded trouble. Whatever awaited them there, Specter was quite certain that the Changyuraptor on his back would prove to be extremely useful from this point onwards, though. And for the rest, he had his good friend, Alba, by his side. Whatever would await them, he would be prepared.

And this thought made him relax, as the cold rain from the skies finally washed the blood off his muzzle.

* * *

 **Thus, I have finally managed to finish another installment. Took me only over a month. :D**

 **That said, let me quickly explain just two things I wanted to explain last chapter already.  
Firstly, Blaze's antics in the previous chapters are inspired by eagles. Throwing their prey down a cliff is a very effective way of killing something they cannot stand against in an even fight. Same goes for clawing eyes out, as can be observed when they're protecting a nest from bears for example, though Blaze never intended to do so.  
Secondly, and lastly, I am very much out of time at the moment. University eats up a lot, even though I feel like I'm not really putting 100% of my efforts into it, honestly. However, as soon as I am done with exams and have all the time in the world again, you guys can expect at least halfway regular installments again. I am really burning to progress through the story, and you can expect many more things to come. I certainly have the motivation, and many more ideas, that's for sure!**

 **So, now that that's out of the way, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this one, and as always:**

 **Take care, and have a nice day!**


	28. Chapter 27: Enemies

**Chapter 27: Enemies**

 ** _"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" - Abraham Lincoln  
_**

The wild transitions between light rain, heavy rain, and then back again to mere drizzle were clear signs from the sky. That was the untamable, uncontrollable, unpredictable power of nature. The weather was indeed in complete discord, showing the inhabitants on the earth down below, whether they were gigantic dinosaurs or just small mammals, who really was in charge of things. No one in their right mind would ever want to be outside right now if there wasn't an extremely good reason to do so. Even a herd of huge Sauropods would probably seek shelter in a forest or amongst each other, using their enormous bodies for protection.

But ironically, this was exactly what a certain Utahraptor embraced and even enjoyed to a certain degree, as he was steadily making his way southwestwards, together with the small pack he now was rather suddenly, and more or less unwillingly, in charge of.

 _Without any clothes to get wet, this is actually not so bad... Having all these fluffy feathers sure is awesome! And as for the weather... it will settle down, eventually... Hopefully before we reach their old home, though... This may mask our scents quite nicely, but so will it potentially do to theirs... Never mind other, big predators... Anything bigger than me might go after my pretty plumage, after all... Same with numbers... Would sure like to avoid running into a hungry and bold pack of raptors or something... And Blaze will never be able to stay airborne for long under these conditions either...  
_

Now that he thought of her, Specter flexed his neck around to get a look at the red Changyuraptor female on his back. He was quite amused at what he saw. Blaze's long feathers were completely drenched already, definitely rendering her useless for any kind of prolonged, high altitude spotting under these conditions, but despite this, she had both her yellow eyes firmly shut. And he wanted to feel pleasantly surprised that she seemingly trusted him already, though he quickly deduced that she simply must not have found any sleep whatsoever last night.

 _And you won't get much more than some two hours or so, I fear..._ Specter thought to himself, sparing a short glance at the destroyed volcano with his other eye.

No, Blaze didn't trust him just yet. Her positioning on his back, right at the base of his neck, safe from his teeth and claws, gave that away. He couldn't blame her for this, though, so he decided to use the time until they reached the Great Valley to show her that he didn't mean her any harm. And to do so, he would just be himself, like always. He would not change his behavior around the newcomer.

Having concluded this, Specter tried to contemplate some more. The possibilities as to what could await them in the enemy's old territory were pretty much endless indeed. The place could be completely abandoned, but what if some of them, if not even all, had returned by now? It was highly unlikely they had, as the pyroclastic flow destroyed just too much vegetation, too many potential sources of food with it, but one never knew for certain. And also, he had yesterday already noticed that Chaser's suggested evacuation route slowed them down considerably. So, what if someone had heard Specter's sad screech, when Chaser fell into the ravine, and then drawn the logical conclusions?

What if someone was now waiting for them?

But Specter wanted to keep these heavy thoughts to himself, not keen on dragging Alba's just about neutral mood down. There was no need for him to share them, anyway. As much as he wanted to feel prepared, he couldn't deny the possibility of a fatal outcome. If more than five of the enemy sharpteeth would be waiting for him and his two companions, which already was a very optimistic assumption of his, they were basically dead already. And he was sure that Alba knew that, too. She was too smart and had lived through too much to possibly think otherwise. Blaze on the other hand was a different story, though Specter promptly decided that if they were really about to get ambushed there, he would at least try to spare Blaze a ghastly fate. She didn't have anything to do with this, after all. All she wanted was live her life. Which Specter wanted, too, of course, but he was directly involved in this conflict. He had killed two of Bloodhorn's brothers, and his name was already known amongst the enemy, thanks to Shade. As he had said himself long ago, to none other than Shade as well, this war was his now, too.

So, in the end, he resorted to pondering in silence.

Just as he was about to focus on what lay in front of him, however, his and Alba's gazes crossed. The albino raptor had apparently looked at Blaze for quite a while, too, making sure that she really was fully asleep. Thus, Specter maintained eye contact and moved a bit closer to her, lowering his head down to her level so that he would be able to drown out the rain and speak in a normal, relaxed tone.

"She's sleeping like a rock for now, don't worry." He said, a slight grin on his face. But his expression normalized when he continued. "Anything you would like to talk about?"

"Yeah... there is." Alba responded. "I just wanted to say that... I think I do understand a bit better now. At least some things. But... it surprises me... And I wonder... Was it really all that bad in your old life? Most of what you told me sounds so horrible... Those many 'wars' you mentioned, hunger of so many, starvation even, all the needless deaths... Especially what happened to some of your food... Killing males just because they're males, only keeping the females alive to eat, and all... It just sounds so... wrong. And you're so... casual about all this. How did you manage to endure and accept that life, while still... caring so much about everything?"

"Well... Not everything was bad in my old life. Not at all..." Specter sighed at this point. He knew all too well where this conversation would lead to. "I think... I think I must apologize, Alba... Not only on my own behalf, but on that of mankind. We were a really... fucked up species, yes, but... quite awesome in multiple ways, too. It's just that... You see, I just have this habit of making some things seem worse than they actually are sometimes, because I'm so used to them. And I can be quite negative about things in general." He then admitted, even feeling a bit of sadness building up inside of him as he thought about his human past, even though he had long since put that behind himself.

Alba tilted her head in surprise, but also curiosity, as she went over all this information Specter had given her about his past over the last days.

"Sometimes, you must look past what you think you see." Specter continued, having noticed the look in Alba's eyes which communicated that she was going through her mind. "I believe that everything there is, is finely balanced out... I mean, just look at us sharpteeth. There are way less of us than there are leaf-eaters, and yet pretty much every leaf-eater hates us because we hunt and kill them. So many think of us as enemies. So many fear us, avoid us, even though they outnumber us. They usually hate the players of this game that everyone is forced to play, and not the game itself. And of course they don't realize that we're helping all of them, by killing a few of them."

"We are?" Alba inquired, this time truly in deep inquisitiveness.

"We are." Specter confirmed. "It's a twisted and very complex concept, I know, but it's true. And it's good this way. Imagine what would happen if every single leaf-eater was allowed to live. Every. Single. One. Imagine this world without sharpteeth, maybe even without... half-teeth... Or rather, uhm... Like, what fastrunners are... What's the word...?"

"Bothteeth?" Alba suggested.

"Bothteeth... bothtooth... Yes, that sounds better. Thanks." Specter said gratefully, now aware of the actual name for omnivores, though he disliked very much that he still needed to learn some more vocabularies, even after all his time in this prehistoric world, even in his now native language, sharptooth. "So yeah, a world without anything that kills for food. And let's push aside the fact that technically, even leaf-eaters kill for food almost every day. There are still a lot of small crawlers on most of the food they eat, after all... You know, there actually is no such thing as a 'pure' leaf-eater. Or sharptooth, for that matter. We sharpteeth, by eating the leaf-eaters, consume a tiny bit of green food, too."

Once more, Alba was immensely surprised to hear that. And, though she had never thought about it like that, it made sense. Now she was even more interested in what Specter had to say.

"But let's not overcomplicate things. Just imagine this world without any sharpteeth or bothteeth as you know them. So, sure, the leaf-eaters would certainly be happy at first... Nothing to fear, nothing to worry about... Almost all their children would live to become adults... Peace, love and happiness... Until they started to run low on food themselves. Look at how much a single longneck eats per day, now take into account all the eggs they lay in a season. And now take into account how many kinds of other big leaf-eaters there are. Threehorns, clubtails, spiketails, swimmers... The lands would have no time to recover and regrow green food. Don't even get me started about all their... 'emissions', so to say, which heavily harm the atmosphere... And not only that. The weak and sick we most often kill would stay alive, maybe even reproduce, mate with each other, resulting in more and more weak and sick children. Everyone wants to live, and of course nobody wants to die, but this is simply not what the 'Great Circle of Life' is about. There is a reason why predators will always be marginally more favored by it than prey. But I'm sure you know that already, don't you?"

"Yes, I do." Alba answered firmly, though she was still surprised. "I just... never thought about it this way. It makes sense, though."

"There is an extent of beauty, peace and reason in death. It gives me some ease, whenever I hunt..." Specter spoke contemplatively into the distance, then looking back at Alba. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is... It's easy to find the bad things in life. Bad things tend to be obvious, while you have to search for the good ones. But there are always good things. And as for humans... They did many, many bad things... but also so many good things. So many nice things. Music, for example, songs, something I couldn't live without. Songs that could make you laugh, make you cry out of happiness or grief, or make you think. Technology, special things to make everyone's lives easier, to make certain lives worth living in the first place. And you could even say that humans went beyond the Great Circle of Life... or at least to the same level. Humans gave certain other animals new homes, making them their pets, granting them a long and safe life, sometimes helping those in the wild just out of the goodness of their hearts. Humans healed fatal injuries and diseases, not only of other humans but also of those completely unrelated to them, predator and prey alike. Most humans liked to help, build, discover, learn and restore. There even was a human who saved a bellydragger when it was a hatchling, and the bellydragger returned every year to that human to spend some time with him... I can actually still learn so many more things from my very own, old kind... And remember, humans always had a choice whether they wanted to eat meat and green food, or _just_ green food. When it came to eating meat, though, this also included killing males because they're males, in some cases. It sucked, yes, and this isn't the reason why it happened to chickens, but in some kinds of birds which were kept as food, the males would hurt and even rape the females if you let them stay together for too long. It had to be done. You had to cull them if there wasn't someone to take over the males, at some point."

He only realized in the short pause after this sentence that Alba had winced when she heard about that little detail. In retrospect he regretted telling her this, for obvious reasons, but he wanted to answer and explain all of Alba's questions. Still, Specter cleared his throat before he continued.

"Anyway... Again, there is a reason behind every action, even the most vile ones. Everything has a reason. Maybe it's even a good reason. And humans had their reasons, no matter how strange, or just so incredibly complicated they might've been... My statement stands, though. I'm glad they're gone now, for the sake of this beautiful earth. If those creatures that sent me here truly knew for certain that my old kind would have destroyed this earth with their unending desires, who was I to judge as part of the problem? But I will always be conflicted about this... because they didn't _all_ deserve to just... not exist anymore... And because I've never been given a chance to decide..."

"I... understand..." Alba spoke again, this time to comfort Specter. "And... I'm sorry..."

"For what?" Came the surprised question.

"Well, for... making you think about this again. I know you don't like to talk much, and I'm just making you explain all this to me in so much detail over and over..."

"Are you kidding?" Specter asked rhetorically, widely smiling, wrapping his arm around Alba and pressing her against his flank. "Yeah, I actually hate explaining, and yeah, I'd rather listen than talk, but you know what? You just made me realize how proud I am to be what I am, and what I was alike. It's my past, all this knowledge I picked up about this world here that's now enabling me to find my own place here. Who, and what would I be without it? And _where_ would I be without it?"

Alba had planned at first to give the most blatant answer ever to those questions. 'You would be Specter, a fastbiter, here, just like you are now'. But then she truly understood the significance. And with that, she understood that the real question wasn't only where Specter would've been without his past. It was rather where she herself would've been without Specter's past, by now. After all, it had been Specter to open her eyes about her condition, to tell her that it wasn't a disease. Not to mention all the other things which differentiated him from all the other sharpteeth. That he was the very first fastbiter to make friends with her would've only been the very start.

And so she responded by nuzzling his neck dearly. Which made Specter, though he happily accepted the kind gesture, rather swiftly retract his forelimb and extend his distance to Alba to the one from earlier. Instead, he gave her a few friendly pats on the back, clearing his throat once more.

"I guess... it's not that hard to understand now, now that you know some of the good things, is it?"

"No. No, it's actually not." Alba concluded this topic, wearing a slight, happy smile of her own. And it didn't take her long to speak up again, though she did it very coyly. "So, uhm... You... like singing?"

"I do, very much. But... I rather listen to others there, as well. I've always been a terrible singer. Not to mention that it's damn hard translating all the songs I know from my time into our language. Most were just too complex, and required certain... 'additions', like a beat and instruments... Though, I am in fact working on translating a song for Chaser... He may have been an ass for most his life, but he sacrificed his to save mine. Yours, too. I will never forget him this, and I want to honor him for that. I don't want his name to be forgotten... His real name, and his reasons."

Hearing this made Alba's eyes almost sparkle with surprise and curiosity. However, Specter should revert that.

"But it's by far not finished." He continued dryly. "And I wouldn't want Blaze to hear it now either."

"Oh... I see..." Alba commented in disappointment, already looking forwards.

"However..." Specter, this time having not noticed that Alba would've settled with this answer, continued, to which she restored hopeful eye contact. "There were also... 'spoken songs'. Several types of spoken songs, actually. Rap, for example, one of my favorite kinds of music. You could really express yourself with rap, if you had the skills. You could tell stories, be funny, honest, rude, insulting, whatever you wanted. But I can't do most of that anymore without actual lips or using my tongue to speak. Other than that, I could only think of poems. None of them really require you to sing or speak fast, and..." And it was at this point that Specter realized he had talked himself into a verbal corner. "Uhm... I, uh... only know a single poem, though, and it's not really a happy one."

Alba let out a contemplative, low growl to this, yet did not hesitate long before raising her voice.

"Would you...?"

Specter rolled his eyes and stroked through his crest feathers in response to Alba's shy 'request' for said poem. Not only would the topic of it once more be about war, death and destruction, but it would probably also cast some serious doubts on what he had just extensively made clear to her about his old species. However, he figured that it was still rather fitting, just to put all these memories and thoughts behind himself. Behind himself and Alba alike, actually. With Blaze now among them, he really wanted to wipe the slate clean between himself and Alba when it came to his past. Besides, this poem was his favorite, which was the only reason he knew it by heart in the first place.

Or maybe it was just the innocent look in Alba's bloodshot, bright blue eyes, which pressed him not to be so reticent.

"Alright, fine... Maybe you'll even like it." He answered, moving a little bit closer to Alba again, taking a deep, calm breath as he recalled the six stanzas.

 **There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,  
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;**

 **And frogs in the pools, singing at night,  
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,**

 **Robins will wear their feathery fire,  
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;**

 **And not one will know of the war, not one  
Will care at last when it is done.**

 **Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,  
If mankind perished utterly;**

 **And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,  
Would scarcely know that we were gone.**

And as it had been the case the last time he sang a song, Specter surprisingly felt a lot more relaxed and, most importantly, free again, free from his troubled thoughts. It was the hidden, yet obvious darkness in this poem which has always managed to make him aware of himself, make him stay humble. But also, it was the hidden, yet obvious light in this poem which has always managed to lift his mood by showing him that life went on.

In the end, he thanked Alba very much in his thoughts for being so curious about this after all.

 _'Life finds a way', I guess..._ _ _Will always hold to be true..._ Through me, they live on... in a way... partly... Hmm... This is actually really deep... Thank you, my friend._

And Specter was curious now, too, as to what Alba was thinking, but an answer should not come outright. First, there was this contemplative silence that reigned over the two fastbiters.

"That was..." Alba finally spoke up, then hesitating for a few moments. As per usual, most of the words used by Specter were still unknown to her, yet she did understand the context and message. Most of it, at least. "Really sad, but... also... really, really nice."

"Isn't it? It's from a time of great conflict, fear and war, but... I guess that's what makes it so powerful. Like I said, there is an extent of beauty in death."

Alba affirmed this with a soft grunt, all her most pressing questions answered now. Following this, she looked at the slowly oncoming Smoking Mountain and then nodded at Specter's back. The black fastbiter offered her a concluding nod and flexed his neck around once more.

"Blaze!"

Upon having her name called out in quite a harsh fashion, Blaze's eyes instantly opened and she jumped up in surprise, unluckily also falling off Specter's back. And with all her feathers so wet, she wasn't able to stabilize herself in mid-air. The black fastbiter had luckily seen that coming, stopped his movement at once and managed to catch her with his forelimb before resuming his trot.

"Y-Yes... uhm... sir?" Blaze, completely dizzy, spoke up from Specter's paw in a very awkward, upside down position with her winged limbs all over the place.

"Sorry. I wanted to check if you're responding to your new name already. Glad to see you do." He explained in a weird mix of earnestness, jest and happiness, opening up his hand to let her move freely again. Blaze gave him a slow nod, used that freedom to roll over and jumped back on his back, afterwards climbing on his head to perch on it. Specter was fine with her doing this, she weighed basically nothing after all, though it worried him a little bit regardless. He really didn't want Blaze's, albeit relatively small, sickle claws anywhere near his face again after the recent events, but he deduced that she would probably be more careful from now on, simply to avoid getting eaten by him if she were to come too close to his eyes for another time. Specter then used his forelimb to point at the volcano. "Just so you know, we might encounter some trouble soon. We might. It's unlikely, but the chance's there. Prepare to be on your guard once we're there, alright?"

Blaze gulped audibly, as she didn't know any details yet about what they could meet in that place, but ultimately responded with at least halfway firm determination in her tired voice.

"Understood. I will."

"Good. You can get yourself some more shut-eye now, if you want. I'll wake you once we're close, but I reckon it will still take a while..."

The glider yawned just as audibly after hearing this, which didn't come as much of a surprise to any of the three sharpteeth. What did come as a surprise to Specter, though, when he rolled his eyes upwards to get her into his field of view, was that she looked down at him, as if to analyze him.

"I have been thinking..." Blaze spoke up, right after she made eye contact. "And I hope you don't mind me asking, but... Am I right in assuming that... you belong to Seeker's pack?"

Both Specter and Alba were pretty dumbstruck by this, Alba even quite a bit annoyed and frustrated that Blaze had figured this out so quickly.

"You are. Let's say Seeker, the pack and I are... just well acquainted, however." Specter gave his neutral answer. His thoughts, on the other hand, were anything but.

 _No, I really shouldn't get my hopes up... Maybe she can't smell it, but I'd be lying to myself. I don't belong to them anymore... Did I ever actually belong to this pack? I've spent so little time with them... And I'd be surprised if they still trusted me... after how I left them, without really saying goodbye... without explaining my reasons... And after what I did... Spotter was close, he must've seen me kill Falce... I'm such an idiot... Well... at least they don't know I made friends with Sharptooth, I guess..._

"So I was right, after all." Blaze commented, quite delighted by now. "Though, how could I not? I have never seen your kind of fastbiter grow as big as you are, with feathers as well. And you can speak leaf-eater. Who else would you belong to, if not to Seeker's pack? Hmm... So... you really were not making false promises? You will take me to the Great Valley?"

"I plan on doing so, yes." Specter responded. "But, I want to be honest with you. I don't know the exact way..."

Blaze's face contorted and she stared down in shock at Specter's golden crest feathers in response to this revelation. However, since she was already too far away from her old home, and had realized by now that returning there would really grant her nothing but her death, she managed to stay calm and let Specter continue. Maybe the male fastbiter didn't know the exact way, but he must have had a rough idea where to go at least, Blaze deduced.

"And again, I can't promise that they will accept you staying there. I mean, you are _easily_ able to kill hatchlings and certain younglings, and you are a potential egg-eater in the warm seasons just as much... In their eyes, that is... I'm sure we'll find a way, though."

"So do I... All I want is a home... A real home..." Blaze spoke up at the dark sky. Then she stood up, slid down Specter's neck and curled up on his back again.

The black fastbiter noticed this relief, figuring that Blaze might just be trusting him a bit more with that knowledge. This wrapped up, he threw an amused glance at Alba, who still seemed to be a bit annoyed with herself that she had apparently heard and believed in different songs describing the Seven, and nudged her lightly in her flank, nodding forwards. Alba let out one last grumble but then she, too, focused on the more important things ahead.

At least until Blaze decided to make one last remark.

"Oh, and... That was a special kind of... song, right? I agree with her, it really was nice..."

That little remark made Specter's heart dive, and he hastily flexed his neck around to Blaze again.

"How much did you...?"

But he didn't finish his sentence as Blaze had quite clearly fallen asleep again. A worried exchange of looks between him and Alba came next. This time, it was Alba who only shrugged slightly, emitting a faint cooing sound to reassure Specter. And it worked out, for Specter took a deep breath, shook his worries off, and concentrated on the scenery, quickly analyzing his surroundings.

 _ _Relax..._ She's just heard the poem... No big deal... Ok, ok... Easy... Now, let's goddamn get this over with!_

He made up his mind. That little shock even had quite the positive effect, he deduced.

"Come on, Alba. Double time." He spoke up, high determination in his voice. Now he really wanted to leave any potential danger behind himself.

And as the rainfall slowly normalized to extensive drizzle, the two Utahraptors picked up the pace. Whatever awaited them, they would be facing it much sooner now. Exactly what both of them wanted.

* * *

 **An hour later:**

The almost bisected, gigantic Smoking Mountain to their far right. The almost utterly destroyed landscape everywhere else. There was literally no cover anywhere in sight, the lands down below painting a sad picture of unfortunate events. This sight affected especially Specter, since he still felt very much responsible for it. Which he really didn't want to tell anyone. Not even Alba, from fastbiter to fastbiter, from friend to friend.

 _Poor bastards... Nobody deserves this kind of death... Burned alive or just slowly suffocating on ashes and toxic fumes... Ok, Specter, focus on what's important... So, down there into the canyon and then a few hundred meters more... Then it's open ground for who knows how long... No cover, level ground, wet air, subpar visibility... Could it get even worse?_ Specter analyzed from the elevated position that he and Alba were standing on.

The lifelessness of the environment was something of advantage in this case, though. As was that the weather had finally normalized for good. By now, it was only steadily drizzling, meaning much better conditions to listen to any dangerous sounds. At least no one would be able to sneak up on them that easily, Specter and Alba respectively figured.

"Alright then... Looks like we're almost there." Specter said to Alba, subsequently intending to wake up Blaze.

Something he found out was unnecessary as he felt some movement on his back, which then turned into a rather strange, almost imperceptible stinging feeling. Specter proceeded to look at his back and saw that Blaze scraped with her foot through his feathers.

"Don't be nervous. I don't like this either, but I doubt anyone's going to attack us like that. Not if I can help it."

Blaze, though, quickly shook her head at his calming words.

"It's not that..." She paused there, sighing audibly. "Well, alright, it is... So... before we go down there... I just wanted to ask if... you know..."

She made a swinging motion with her tail to show him what she really was after. Specter could only chuckle lightly in response, giving her a sure nod. This made Blaze visibly cheer up and, after shaking some water off her feathers, she wasted no time climbing right to the tip of his tail. When she found a good position, Specter did the same move as yesterday and launched her high up into the rainy air.

"Hmm... I was wondering why you absolutely wanted her to fly towards the leaf-eaters, yesterday." Alba commented with a faint smile, watching Blaze pull off a few rather impressive aerial maneuvers.

"I figured that if I made her connect something happy to us, she'd be more willing to come along." Specter answered, delighted as well upon seeing that the glider really enjoyed herself. "She's probably never been so high up in the air, after all."

"Good thinking. We should start now to get down, though."

Alba's honest and dry statement brought Specter back into the harsh reality, which he found to be very much necessary. He would have more than enough time to be happy after they left those daunting lands behind themselves, he thought to himself. So he grunted in confirmation, and the two fastbiters started their descent towards the ground below while Blaze slowly glided down by herself.

It was very easy for the duo of raptors to advance because the way down was mostly made out of hard soil, and even though they were forced to hop on and between several boulders from time to time. This was pretty much exactly what their powerful and agile bodies were designed for, after all, even Specter's vastly oversized corpus. But it was noticeable that the male, black-feathered Utahraptor struggled way more with progressing than his white, unfeathered, female counterpart. Alba didn't even stagger once, casually and swiftly, masterfully indeed, making her way down. Specter actually caught himself beginning to be quite a bit jealous of the sheer control she had over all her muscles, wishing that he was more Alba's size instead of being so humongous for a raptor, but these emotions never got a chance to manifest as Alba always waited whenever Specter needed some more time to make his moves.

Until finally, both fastbiters stood side by side on firm, level ground again. As if on cue, the short flapping of wings and soft thud on Specter's back confirmed that Blaze had joined up with them, too, and so the three unique raptors moved on.

"Thank you. I could get used to this." The glider started gratefully, then switching to a grave, analytical tone. "But do we... really have to go _that_ way? From what I've seen so far, it looks anything but safe after we leave this small canyon..."

"Did you see another way?" Specter inquired in the same manner.

"I didn't, no." Blaze admitted.

"Then I guess we have to."

Knowing that in less than 500 meters everyone would have to be on the height of their concentration, Specter decided to kill the last bits of time until then. And besides, there was one thing concerning Blaze he was rather interested in. Two things, actually, but he decided to ask about the less personal first.

"So, yesterday..." He spoke to Blaze, who was perching on his head again by now. "Did you... seriously made that leaf-eater believe he could kill me all by himself?"

Blaze was seriously taken aback by this sudden topic, feeling the pressing urge to just say nothing or simply lie. However, she knew that would've been hopeless.

"Oh! I... I, uh... didn't... exactly tell him..." She tried to respond, in an utterly nervous voice. It was only now that she realized the two fastbiters must've easily heard the final words of the conversation between their target and herself. And since Specter, apparently being a friend to Seeker, could understand and speak leaf-eater...

"Don't worry. It's alright, really." Specter reassured her. "Whatever it was you told him about me, I won't be angry with you. I never cared much about insults and all that. I'm just curious. He obviously was the leader of this group, and I would never have imagined a leader to be _that_ stupid. I mean, how in the world did he plan to kill a fastbiter bigger than himself?"

"No, I... didn't really... suggest killing either of you, to him..."

The ever so much increasing, extreme nervousness in Blaze's voice, and her scents in fact, made Specter only more curious, as he asked himself just what this little female had told the Hadrosaur but didn't want to tell him now.

"Well, what was it then? It's fine, just say it. I just want all of us to be honest with each other."

Blaze was almost shaking with anxiety by now. Telling this really was the absolute last thing she wanted to do, it was just too much of a disgusting thing to admit in front of those two fastbiters, but since the black fastbiter was so incredibly intent on knowing, she took a deep breath and just came out with the truth.

"I, uh... might have told him... uhm... where your eggs were, so that he could crush them..."

"My eggs?!"

"His eggs?!"

That the two fastbiters had exclaimed their parts in perfect unison made Blaze's heart leap into her throat, her body cramping up for a moment. And seeing how both had stopped their movement and dropped their jaws, revealing all of their lethal teeth, didn't exactly made her feel comfortable either.

"Well... You told me to think of something, no matter what, and... I just figured that... since you and..." She cut herself off at this point, lowering her head. "I'm sorry... I couldn't think clearly... Please don't be mad at me..."

"No, it's... It's fine." Specter broke the stunned silence while still being sort of stunned himself. "I'm just surprised that he believed in that, since it's the cold time right now. And of course that you managed to... think of that so quickly."

"Well... it was actually pretty straightforward." Blaze spoke again, a little bit relieved. "After all, you two are mates, aren't you?"

None of the fastbiters vocalized an answer to that. Instead, Alba blushed so much that her head turned visibly red, while Specter almost choked on his own tongue as he gasped. Noticing this, Blaze's nervousness and slight fear turned into surprise as well.

"You're... not? But you seem so close to each other..."

Specter was quite frankly at a loss for words. Though he realized now that the nose of a Changyuraptor simply wasn't good enough to smell these things, things like the truth, lies, or which dinosaurs were mates, it took him aback nonetheless to be honestly perceived as Alba's mate just by looking at him and her. More so, now he really wondered how she thought about this.

But in the end, before this whole situation would be able to become even more awkward, Specter simply took it as a compliment. He was just glad to be treating Alba right, considering she was, rather peculiarly, his first close female friend. And that Taunt wasn't here right now, being honest with himself.

"We... _are_ close. Close friends. We've been through quite a bit." He explained, avoiding the use of any additional, unnecessary, potentially negative words such as 'just'. He knew all too well how those tiny details in these talks could destroy, or at least seriously taint, close friendships, too. In any event, he hoped that Alba saw it the same way, so he looked over at her. "Right?"

As Alba then restored eye contact and nodded thankfully, this should be confirmed to him.

"Oh... I, uhm... I'm sorry, I didn't want to imply anything." Blaze said, feeling ashamed of herself that she had assumed otherwise. Specter had already told her that he and Alba lost a good friend and leader, so she didn't even want to imagine what else could've happened to those unusual fastbiters. She wanted to be anything but trouble for the two big sharpteeth, which was exactly what she had achieved by making them so uncomfortable just when they were all about to cross very dangerous lands.

"You couldn't have known, so no worries. And I shouldn't have asked at a time like this. Now, let's all look alive, ok?"

Specter's words were answered by affirmative growls from Alba and Blaze, after which the small group resumed their movement towards the open ground ahead.

And when they finally reached those devastated lands, something inside all of them clicked. Suddenly, whether this was intentional or not, calculating coldness radiated from the three companions. Just primal instincts doing their work, observing, listening, ensuring everyone's survival by watching out for the tiniest bits of movement or sound.

However, there simply weren't any. Only ravaged trees, ashes, and the bones of long since dead creatures paved the ground, singing their silent songs of utmost tragedy in the rain.

Despite all this, Specter forced his mind to stay open for other things as well, since this was probably the last chance for him to figure out what sort of enemies he would be dealing with before fighting them at some point. Knowing that most of them were fastbiters, raptors, just wasn't good enough for him. He desperately wanted to know more, know for sure. And that had a reason, because each kind of raptor there was possessed different strengths and weaknesses, something of high value to be aware of. That he was generally immensely interested in anything related to dinosaurs, especially raptors, only amplified this desire.

After ten minutes of steady movement, ten minutes in which at least thirty corpses of leaf-eaters and small sharpteeth had greeted his eyes, Specter raised his forelimb, indicating for Alba to stop for a second.

 _There. Bones... Raptor bones... But of which kind...?_

The three sharpteeth moved towards the point of interest. While they were doing so, Specter continued to contemplate all the skeletal remains around. This was because when he first laid eyes on this scenery way over a month ago, he had assumed the leaf-eater herds to be traveling to the Great Valley. And now he asked himself exactly where that idea had come from. It had not made any sense then, it did not make any sense now.

Had it been his instincts? Had it just been a rushed line of thinking in his confusion and horror? Or had it actually been something of high importance he noticed only subconsciously, back then?

For now, he couldn't find an answer, as everyone came to a halt.

Four skeletons of big raptors, very similar in size to an adult Utahraptor, next to that of a juvenile Triceratops lay before Specter's feet. The plain presence of these bones told him that the raptors had hunted the young Ceratopsian just before the incident happened. But then, when it happened, predator and prey alike had seemingly tried to protect each other from the superheated dust wave. If so, to absolutely no avail, obviously.

 _In the face of death, everyone can become friends... Predator and prey will become one again..._ Specter thought to himself contemplatively, before dismissing his needless cogitations. _Ok, so, I guess these here might have belonged to them... But they don't look much like Utahraptors, from what's left of them... No... Their skulls seem too different from ours... smaller and more fragile... which definitely excludes Austroraptors then, too, with their long snouts... But even so, they could still be anything... Achillobators, maybe... Big and feathered... Though, Shade told me they're faster and skinnier than us, which Achillobators are definitely not..._ _ _But what if he was lying there, too...? Did Shade ever really tell me the truth...?_ So... maybe they're some new dromaeosaurs which humans never even had the chance to discover... Might even be a subspecies of Utahraptor or something, who knows? If they already smell similar... Maybe I'm even some kind of mutated sub-subspecies myself... My feathering is a bit different from the other Utahraptors, like the few feathers on top of my tail... Not to mention my size... Hmm... I really should've studied paleontology instead of business administration..._

Specter frowned lightly, annoyed with himself that he couldn't connect the dots, but was quick to gesture for Alba to move on now.

 _Maybe I'm just overdoing it... I know there are Carnotaurs and big raptors among them, maybe some other big predators... What impact would it have to know the details? Nobody else would understand, anyway... Even if anyone's going to believe this story in the first place, I would probably just confuse them further...  
_

These thoughts having left his mind, he decided to just focus all his energy on staying alert.

It shouldn't stay that way for too long, though, as around approximately fifteen minutes later, Alba now abruptly came to a halt. Specter stopped as well, following her gaze, and his eyes widened when he saw what she was looking at. The two fastbiters walked a dozen meters, then stood in front of the remains of a Stegosaurus family, which had consisted of two adults and two children. And one of the children's skeletons was a lot smaller than the other, because that child had miraculously survived the cataclysm at first.

 _That's him... This... is the place... It was exactly here... where it all began...  
_

That skeleton of the youngest child once was the male spiketail which had died for Specter, the black fastbiter's first child to ever kill. And it wasn't only this which was special about the place.

"This... is where we first met..." Alba spoke up, a chilly tone of sadness in her voice.

Something along the same lines would've come from Specter, were he not so deeply lost in his memories. He could almost see a ghost of himself standing there, sating his hunger on the small spiketail as a dark blue and a snow white Utahraptor slowly approached him from behind. Two Utahraptor siblings that went on to change his life forever. Two Utahraptor siblings of which only one turned out to have good intentions at heart.

The female, albino Utahraptor he was now standing next to.

And Alba's thought process was shockingly alike to Specter's. She, too, imagined those fastbiters standing there. She, too, could almost see herself carefully approaching this huge, black-feathered sharptooth. Mistrusting him, wary of him, thinking that he was the enemy. Thing was, in contrary to him, she could only ever see two fastbiters. Herself and Specter. The third, the dark blue one, never showed up in her mind. It was like this fastbiter had never existed. Among these two imaginary sharptooth silhouettes, she was alone in the face of the unknown.

 _Shade... brother... How could you...? How could I ever... trust you...? How...?_

But Alba immediately got shaken out of her thoughts when she felt a warm, comforting paw on her back. Once she looked up at him, Specter nodded and then shook his head, as if to say 'I know', but also 'don't let it get to you'. Alba could only return a sad nod to this, yet forced herself not to look back anymore as she joined his side again.

Minute after minute in which absolutely nothing happened went by. Literally nothing. No movement, no sounds but those of the rain and the slight breeze. The lands began to seem even more daunting than before, and there was something else going on by now. Something started to change inside Specter, Alba and Blaze. Specter noticed this first in Blaze, and only because she perched on his head, thus making close physical contact. The so far dead silent glider had constantly scanned everything around in a perfect loop while remaining surprisingly calm. There had been a clear pattern in her watch.

Until now. Now, she double checked directions, her sickle claws sometimes tapping on Specter's head. It was a symptom he had found in himself, occasionally. Though absolutely nothing in the surroundings had changed, Blaze was evidently nervous.

And so was Specter. There just was this feeling inside of him, a feeling that didn't really make sense but still existed, this sixth sense raising the alarm.

"You're feeling it, too, aren't you?" He simply asked the two females.

"Yeah..." Alba immediately answered, having only waited for Specter to state the obvious. "Someone is watching us..."

Blaze finally let out a faint, affirmative grunt to that as well.

"But I doubt it's them." Specter firmly continued to elaborate his feelings, yet in forced calmness, checking his flanks for any scents or movement. "I'm thinking if they were really here, waiting for us, they would have attacked already."

"What if they are just toying with us?"

Alba's question was, like always, reasonable enough for Specter to ponder it heavily for a moment, but his clear opinion on it were only two negative grumbles.

"I think the two of us pissed them off too much for that." He added, hinting at the fact that all three of Bloodhorn's brothers had died at his and Alba's claws. Not to mention that Chaser had caused some serious losses among them, too. If he were Bloodhorn, Specter figured, he wouldn't waste any time with 'toying' around. Still, he did not want to get across overly naive. He wasn't Bloodhorn, after all, and never would be. "However, I don't know for certain, of course. But what I do know is that we can do this. Just prepare to act swiftly, girls."

It equally pleased and surprised Specter to notice that after hearing his words, and his hint of an order at the end, Alba and Blaze went back to their respective state of mind from earlier, their nervousness vanishing into the imperceptible realms. Though he has always been aware of his intuition for leadership and rather dominant appearance, even as a human to an extent, he would never have imagined to be entrusted with nothing short his own little pack, three individual lives, so quickly. More so, he was immensely glad to be doing something right at last.

But did he trust himself to keep this up? This, he still couldn't answer to the fullest. Did he dislike it, then? No, he actually liked it a lot. He liked making sure everyone was alright and well. Maybe that was already decent enough to justify his current position, motivate him to keep looking out for his companions.

However, he really would've much rather been given any other opportunity to put his skills to the test. As it was now, the chances for him to fail, get Blaze and Alba killed and then die himself, were pretty high. And yet, he tried to take it as a chance to prove himself, show himself and everyone else what he was made of.

 _And what choice do I have? If hostiles are here, this is either live or die, and it's just dumb luck if it's live... All I can do is try to keep them relaxed and vigilant... and if it comes to a fight, keep them alive..._

These thoughts couldn't make Specter relax in any way, shape or form, but what they could do was clear his mind.

And with a clear mind, another fifteen minutes of silent trotting went by like they were nothing. It was starting to dawn on Specter that he would need to keep track of the way as well, though. He would have to give out the order to change directions at some point, as the Great Valley lay somewhere to their northwest by now when they were moving southwestwards. Problem was, with the sky so thickly clouded, he couldn't pinpoint the exact direction they were heading in. It didn't help that he didn't know any direct way to the valley in the first place.

That was until suddenly, Specter froze in his tracks and his mouth fell slightly agape.

"See something?" Alba and Blaze asked in unison, startled by his odd behavior, already preparing their respective claws or wings.

They didn't need to, however. What Specter was looking at was another volcano, deeply embedded into the gigantic mountains in the distance straight ahead. But it was not a normal volcano by any means. Instead, it looked an awful lot like a dinosaur head, with a 'horned snout' and some sort of 'frill'. And, most noticeably, it had two 'horns', pointing up at the sky.

"Threehorn Peak..." Specter finally noted, to which his companions emitted sounds that communicated confusion. "Seeker told me about it. I think we missed this 'Rock that Looks Like a Longneck' which led him to the valley, but that thing there is a good sign as well. We're definitely going the right way."

The two females happily settled with this, and the trio resumed their journey. While Blaze and Alba scanned their surroundings again, however, Specter had his eyes glued to the strange-looking volcano. Not only, like with Saurus Rock, was he in awe that such things even existed, but he also found it to be quite the fateful portent. After all, Threehorn Peak had apparently been heavily involved in everything that led to The Gang of Seven eventually all becoming full-fledged carnivores. It was this volcano, right on top of it, where the first 'blue glowing rock' had landed, probably the first in the history of this solar system. And even though the very first 'Stone of Cold Fire' was nothing short of a dud, having been completely non-functional and all, it was the so highly unlikely chance to come by this place that frightened Specter a little.

There was even more to this landmark, actually.

 _Threehorn Peak... First time I'm seeing it, and yet it still seems so... familiar. I wonder... Was it this volcano I saw out of the corner of my eye, back then? Could I have immediately tried to return to the others, had I thought more clearly, instead of heading out for a hunt...? Maybe I should stop listening to my gut and instincts... No, it was good that I did. No regrets. Who knows what would've happened to my friends then..._

And after ten more minutes, this line of thinking in combination with a new sight actually lifted Specter's mood by a lot. Alba's and Blaze's, too.

So far, the only 'trees' they had encountered were almost non-existent or burned to a crisp. Just barren pieces of charcoal. Now, though still some minutes away, and ever so faintly, vegetation became visible. Fallen trees without most their leaves, only a select few still standing, that was, but it was a good augury nonetheless.

Finally, after an hour of moving with utmost trepidation and tension, there was a good chance they could very soon relax a little.

"Look!" Blaze remarked in excitement, soon as she laid eyes onto the signs of wildlife. "Some trees and plants again! We're almost out of this place!"

"No. Not quite." Alba answered gravely. "Trees and plants mean cover, and cover means spots for ambushes."

"Agreed. Keep your guard up for just a bit longer." Specter added, making Blaze's head drop along with her mood. He focused on Alba next, though his words were meant for both his companions. "But let's not strain ourselves too much. You two have already done all you could so far. Besides, trees and plants mean cover for us as well. And once the sky clears up, I'm sure we'll be..."

He cut himself off at once, squinting his eyes while scanning the horizon. One of the standing trees in the distance, maybe 200 meters away, a small and rather odd-looking one in the first place, had disappeared while he was looking at Alba. And Specter's sudden silence did not go unnoticed by her. The two fastbiters didn't stop just yet, however, but halved their pace first.

And then, seconds later, all of them locked on to a slowly approaching form straight ahead, which had emerged from behind another tree trunk. Blaze, having the best eyes of the small pack, reacted first.

"Fastbiter... Six longneck-lengths away..."

Her deadpan analysis prompted Specter and Alba to come to a halt now, whereas the unknown fastbiter kept slowly closing in on them. Specter's uncertainties from earlier hit him with full force this time. He knew he just had to say something. It was his responsibility. He had to give out a clear order. Something like 'stay calm, wait and investigate'. Or 'scatter, attack and kill'. Or maybe even something like 'turn around, evade and run'. Anything.

But he couldn't do it. Because as the other raptor reached a distance just shy of 100 meters from them, he was able to pick up some more details. It made his blood run cold, even though he should've expected it.

 _Big... feathered... a bit lanky, and... Oh, shit..._

That fastbiter was clearly the enemy. There was absolutely no doubt about it. Yet, something seemed very, very off.

And it was simple. The raptor was alone, no one else had followed after it nor were there any calls for support to be heard from it as of yet. As the stranger then stopped, too, and waited, presenting a cautious, submissive stance, it became even more apparent that this wasn't an outright ambush. Which was the whole problem. If that fastbiter really did not belong to an ambush squad, but did indeed still belong to the hostile sharpteeth, what did it want here and why would it approach them in that careful manner?

Not knowing what to do now, Specter looked over at Alba, hoping that she might have an idea. But there was something about her that made him even more uneasy. He couldn't find anything useful in her scents, though, as they were strangely neutral. Almost forcedly neutral, but Specter decided not to draw any rash conclusion from this.

So he quickly analyzed her from head to toe. Quite literally.

Alba's blue eyes were firmly fixed on the stranger, but not squinted. Nothing unusual there. Her nostrils were steadily contracting and dilating, she was taking deep breaths but all of them calmly. Nothing again. Her forelimbs seemed tense, but were in a neutral position. Nothing there either. Her tail was raised, but neutrally straightened out as well.

Nothing about her really was different from any normal situation so far. If anything, she was just attentive.

It was only once his careful glance arrived at her feet that it dawned on Specter once more. Though her two sickle claws were vertically raised in the standard raptor-manner, she had her four other toes curled, the soil before her feet deeply rutted by her sharp talons. There couldn't have been a more obvious sign that Alba actually was extremely tensed, and now planned on doing something very unreasonable, very soon. And it was highly likely that she would not listen to anyone's words anymore, once that happened. Not even Specter's.

 _Oh no. Stay calm... Don't..._

Specter didn't get to finish his thoughts, which had lasted no longer than a mere fraction of a second, nor did he realize that he was easily able to pick up the scents of this unknown fastbiter by now, despite the slight drizzle. And when he could do it with such ease, so could Alba. It slowly became clear to him that this fastbiter might've not been so unknown to her.

Then it all just happened way too fast.

Alba exploded into a sprint with such abnormal acceleration that she swirled up a tornado of dirt, mud and ashes. Specter reacted only half a single second later, trying to grab her tail and stop her. It was no use. She was simply too fast. He grabbed nothing but the wind Alba left in her wake, almost stumbling over. And so he wasted no time using his forward momentum to sprint after her, forcing Blaze to hold on to his crest feathers to avoid falling off his head. But he knew right away that he couldn't do anything to prevent whatever was about happen, anymore. After all, Alba was twice as fast as he was.

Specter had not even sprinted for 50 meters when Alba already reached attack range to the other fastbiter.

 _'Prepare to act swiftly, girls'. What a great fucking idea that was to say, Specter! Argh! Alba, think, goddammit! Don't just..._

However, Alba had thought this through already. But this assumption in Specter's mind was not quite what she had on hers. Her plan should turn out to be pretty straightforward. Though her target had seen her coming early enough, and tried to evade in shock and surprise, she was effortlessly able to counter that by swiftly changing her course and then charging right at the enemy sharptooth again. It did surprise her a bit that she completely outmatched this fastbiter in agility, but she didn't care about that now. After all, she knew this fastbiter's scents. She knew them very well. Far too well. She would never forget anything even close to those scents after what happened to her family. But despite this, she never intended for this to be a lethal attack. Not just yet.

 **Slam!**

In a flurry of claws, scales and feathers, Alba and the stranger smacked into and rolled over each other multiple times on the ground.

Specter pushed himself to sprint faster and faster at this sight, two such big raptors wrestling it out, as he was more than worried about Alba's life right now. Of course he trusted completely in her abilities, more than in his own, but fighting at such a close distance potentially negated any combat skills, to the point where coming out alive was just simple luck. Just one lucky pierce from a sickle claw, and one of the fastbiters would be dead. Especially considering that he didn't know yet how those 'new' raptors fought.

Chances were, maybe even better than a Utahraptor.

But as he then finally arrived, ready to do anything to help his friend, it was far too late. The fight was already over, with a clear winner. Although he was relieved, this didn't really make him relax.

Alba stood victorious and unharmed, right next to her the prone fastbiter, her foot placed with a firm grasp on its vulnerable neck. One false move and it would be all over for this sharptooth. Her sickle claw on that foot nervously tapping against its throat gave away that Alba probably even wished for this to happen. She was just waiting for the word. Specter's word.

Yet again, however, Specter couldn't really find any reasonable things to say. The raptor at Alba's mercy was another female, and seeing her up close only confirmed to him once more that she definitely was 'the enemy'. She matched a certain raptor exactly in overall appearance, a certain raptor Specter had seen on the night of Shade's betrayal, though only briefly and from behind. But this memory was enough to go by. The female raptor on the ground was one of those who Specter had extensively trained for to kill without mercy. And under any normal circumstances, he might have just done that.

But this was not a normal circumstance by any stretch of the imagination. Too many things didn't add up. And so he forced himself to open his mouth, firmly speak up, to make sure of the most important things first. Only for the stranger to speak up before him, her widely opened, green eyes looking up at Alba in fear, then ultimately switching over to Specter.

"Please... Please don't kill me... I mean you no harm..."

This desperate plea threw Specter back all the way to when he first met Littlefoot, back when he had unwillingly trespassed the territory of the most respected and feared pack of fastbiters around. Those had been almost his exact same words even. And just like Littlefoot had had every reason to rightfully kill him, Specter now had every reason to rightfully kill this female. Actually, he wouldn't even be required to do it himself, for he knew that one single growl, one single order, could make Alba willingly rip her throat open. From the looks of it, Specter figured, Alba was only waiting for that order, too.

However, he absolutely refused to act like this. Littlefoot had given him a chance to explain himself, and so would Specter now grant this female the chance to explain herself.

"You. Are you alone? Has _anyone_ followed after you?" He demanded first. To him, this was by far the most important information to know.

"No, I... I am alone... I've been here for almost two days... and... there is no one else here... Not anymore... No one..."

He didn't show it, but this made Specter loosen up so much that he wished he could've just dropped to the ground and taken a nap. What this female had just said was the truth and nothing but the truth, her scents were proof of that.

"Then _why_ are you here? Why would you stay here, of all places, for two days?" He continued to interrogate, also carefully eyeing her non-verbal reactions. Alba's, too. Any of the two female fastbiters suddenly snapping out of tension was the last thing he needed, Specter figured. And surprisingly, Alba now made eye contact with him, looking bewildered that he had apparently decided to ask any further questions beyond the first two. For now, though, he didn't pay that too much heed.

"This is my old home... So many of my friends died here... But I had to run away from the others, too... They wanted to kill me..."

"And why did they want to do that?"

"Because I wanted to leave them... Because I saw that my path was a different one... A big sharptooth with dark feathers... He murdered one of my best friends... in cold blood... But you... You must be Specter... There are stories about you... You killed Bloodhorn's brothers... Nobody knew for sure where you would go after what happened at the Great Divide, but... A familiar voice told me to return to this place... And now here you are... And now... I want to help you fight this bastard... kill this bastard who killed Mist..."

Specter frowned heavily as he thought about that statement. The truth of absolutely everything in that statement.

 _Mist... Is she talking about the raptor you threw into the ravine, Bloodhorn? Hm, I guess so... It seems like you've made enemies in your own ranks, you prick..._

When he looked back at Alba, he saw her shaking her head in denial and disbelief already. It seemed like she already knew what he was about to say and heavily opposed this, didn't want this to be true. But even this could not stop him from making an extremely fateful decision. And he would do it clearly this time.

"Alba? Stand down."

Specter's unambiguous demand made Alba rip open her eyes in raw anger and confusion.

"What?! Are you serious?!" She immediately snapped. "This fastbiter is our enemy! She is Skull's sister! She is the fastbiter's sister who murdered both my parents!"

This hit Specter like a supersonic tail-whip from a longneck, so hard and brutally that he didn't even notice that the prone fastbiter muttered something in her defense. All of his focus was on Alba right now, for now he could understand very well why she was so keen on taking the stranger's life. But there was a fine difference to him between vengeance, justice, and outright murder, even in a world where forthright vigilantism was an accepted practice. It was just too simple, and it never was that simple. It just couldn't be true that the raptor on the ground had joined her brother, Skull, in murdering Alba's parents, and yet evidently was unfamiliar with Alba.

"And did she participate in that?" Specter asked plainly, his question directed at both fastbiters. "Did she help in killing your parents?"

Alba was quaking with anger, yet unable to respond reasonably to that. She remembered each and every single one of her parents' murderers, but not this sharptooth at her feet. Of her, she only knew that her scents resembled two of those of the actual murderers she wanted dead, Skull and his brother Decay.

Still, this was just too much for her to process, as she asked herself just how Specter could be so incredibly naive. How could he honestly believe this fastbiter's clever lies? How could he not see that this was a trick to get everyone killed? How could he honestly consider taking this fastbiter with them, force his apparent 'friend' to live alongside her, alongside the constant scents of murder?

Ultimately, Alba retracted her killing claw, violently pulled back her leg, spun around and walked several of her own lengths away, trying to control herself while still shaking over her whole body.

Seeing her in that state truly broke Specter's heart, seeing Alba suffer so heavily under his decision. It hurt him more than any physical pain he has ever endured. But he was absolutely positive that this had been another right decision. It had been a bold and risky decision, yes, true, but the only acceptable one to him as well. He would never again take an innocent life when it was not to sustain himself. And for all he knew, this female raptor was innocent.

And he knew Alba would, in time, understand this. All he had to do was explain his reasons to her, tell her that this was necessary. So he decided to talk to Alba first, only then would he focus completely on the stranger and rack his brain over the details.

"What's your name?" He deadpanned, only looking at the prone female with one of his eyes.

"Union..."

"Union..." Specter repeated, his voice still emotionless, then fixing her with both eyes. "Wait here."

Union nodded hesitantly, and Specter wasted no time walking over to Alba. At around the halfway mark to her position, he decided to take care of one last thing, however.

"Blaze? Give us some alone time, alright?"

It took the glider, now on Specter's back, quite a while to respond to that. Blaze couldn't even begin to comprehend everything that had just happened. One thing was clear to her, though. It was a highly emotional situation, and it affected her deeply, too. And so she would definitely respect whatever Specter had on his mind.

"Yes, sir."

"You can drop the 'sir'. No need for that." Specter added as Blaze glided towards the ground and already walked some distance away.

"Yes, uhm... Specter."

"Good. Thank you."

With that settled, he resumed his movement towards Alba.

Arriving behind his friend, he took a deep breath and tried to place his paw on her back before speaking up. But before Specter could even come close to her, Alba jumped forwards, turned around and stared at him. A piercing stare of absolute pain. Her blue eyes were filled with tears, tears of anger and confusion that he had acted like this.

To Specter, seeing this felt like another longneck had hit him, this time right between his legs.

"How...?" Alba took the word, her voice broken and shaky. "How... can you do this...? I thought... I thought we were friends..."

"Alba, please..." Specter gave his determined response, though he had to force his voice to stay firm. "I _am_ your friend. And you are mine, one of my very best. I won't let anyone hurt you ever again. But I will _not_ let you murder that fastbiter when she didn't do you or your family any harm. I will _not_ stand for this."

"But she's the enemy!" Alba repeated, her voice starting to become louder and more determined again at this point. "Don't you see? Don't you see that she's been sent here to kill us?! To kill you?!"

"But what if she's not?" Specter instantly answered, to which Alba frowned and looked at the ground. "What if she really wants to help us? There were once two fastbiters of Seeker's pack who did the same thing. Leap and Swift, two fastbiters who decided to change sides and fight for what's right."

A long while of silence between the two should follow from then on. A long silence in which none of them noticed they had been carefully watched.

And Union had indeed watched, watched this in amusement. Even though it went directly against her demeanor, even though she had lost everything that mattered to her for now, even her name, she was satisfied with this result. It pained her to be called by this name, her old name, the one from before she had become Discord, but this was something she would endure until she was given a good opportunity to make this murderer and his strange friends pay. It filled her with rage to see this huge fastbiter up close like that, walking around like he had done nothing wrong in his life, pretending to care about things, pretending to have friends, pretending to be a leader, pretending to be doing something right.

 _That wound next to your eye... that was Mist, wasn't it? Of course it was her... She fought you bravely, but you bested her... and then you still murdered... Oh, you will see..._ _Your time will come, you disgusting bastard... Right when you expect it the least... And she... She will watch...  
_

Sadly, she had to admit that this Specter was seriously out of her abilities to kill by herself. He really was enormously big for a fastbiter, abnormally big even. Though, his size wasn't even the actual problem. The actual problem was that he was feathered, or at least what was directly implied by his dull-colored plumage. Those feathers didn't make sense for him to have. His kind of fastbiter just didn't have them, like with this White One here, and she has never seen or heard of any exceptions.

Until a few years ago, that was. Until those feathered fastbiters of his kind suddenly appeared, becoming quite famous even. Five of them, from far away. And she knew this couldn't be a coincidence. Because luckily, she had received some very interesting insights about this black fastbiter from Skull. Her brother really was smart, too smart to stay in Bloodhorn's shadow forever, she deduced. The plan which Skull had proposed to her might even surpass that of the boss, though how could it not? After all, both of them had forged their own plans, their own approaches, yet both still connected, to finally fulfill everyone's desires.

And so she would force herself to stay calm, and forget about her past for now. Besides, she had already lived up to her actual name, for it was obvious that this black fastbiter cared a lot about the White One.

 _And now you two are at discord... How unfortunate._

However, this really was everything for now she would allow herself to enjoy. She knew herself that from here on out, she would have to live up to her word. She would have to follow this big fastbiter to wherever he decided to go. She would have to do whatever he wanted her to do. She would have to be a friend to him, which disgusted her to even think about. She might even have to put her life on the line for him, if necessary. But for this to work out, for her to avenge Mist and play her part, she just had to stay disciplined.

She had to be Union again.

Which, evidently, would be hard to keep up. That there was a glider now with this pack, for example, was something new and highly troublesome. Not to mention the White One. Though she had, of course, let her beat her willingly, she had also underestimated her moves, Union realized that now. But nevertheless, she would manage. She always has.

And then, as agreed with her brother, once the exact right moment was there, she would have her revenge.

As Union averted her gaze from the two fastbiters to the glider, pondering her sudden involvement here, Specter decided to act. He stepped forwards, stretched out his right forelimb and presented his hand to Alba, revealing the little bite wound he had inflicted on himself to make the blood oath with her.

"Do you still remember what I've sworn to with my blood?"

Alba hesitated, even though she knew the answer like she knew what was on the inside of her own, right paw.

"I've sworn to keep you safe, no matter what." Specter answered for her, still offering his hand. "But do you still trust me to keep my promise?"

It was at this point that Alba finally reacted as she slowly put her hand in his, though she avoided making eye contact.

"Maybe I'm naive, maybe I'm an idiot... but I'm not stupid, Alba." Specter began to explain himself. "I know what you're thinking. I know all of it. Because I'm thinking exactly the same. It's awfully convenient for her to be here, waiting for us, out of all the places. It's convenient that she has lost a friend so suddenly. And you can believe me, part of me wants to get rid of her as well. But the bigger part of me tells me that we need her. I might count as two fastbiters in one, but that still makes us only three. Blaze can't really support us but spot now and then. This won't be enough to safely get through whatever we need to get through. We need every additional set of claws and teeth. We need _her_. And she can tell us everything we need to know about them, too. _However_... If she does as much as raise a single claw against you, I will rip her head off. If she pulls out only a single one of Blaze's feathers, I will rip out all of hers... I will _destroy_ _anyone_ who tries to hurt my friends. But if she really wants to help us and be my friend, our friend, I will go through fire and water for her, too."

"But how can you know...?" Alba asked in great uncertainty and still in a shaky voice. "She will pretend... She will just wait... And then she will kill you..."

"I can't know. I will probably never know for sure." Specter admitted. "And yes, she might. But I think she knows that would get her killed, too. And thanks to Seeker, I might even be able to find out how much she really cares about helping us."

 _Yeah... that might do the trick for the most part... Thank you, Seeker. Thank you for doubting me when you had a good reason to do so.  
_

"And now come here already..." Specter offered, extending his other forelimb.

This time, Alba didn't hesitate as she accepted the warm embrace.

"I'm sorry I'm doing this to you" Specter spoke while stroking Alba's neck. "I will never be able to understand what it was like for you, to have everything taken from you. But you do understand me right now, don't you?"

"Yes... I do." Alba answered into Specter's chest.

"Good." Specter finally concluded, letting go of her again, allowing himself to show a relieved smile. "Now let us please leave these goddamn fucking lands behind ourselves already, ok?"

Specter's forced choice of cuss words actually caused Alba to smile, too, if only ever so faintly. Consequently, the two fastbiters went off to pick up Blaze, and once the glider was safely on Specter's back once more, they returned to the still prone form of Union.

"You can get up now." Specter spoke to her, to which Union instantly rolled over on her feet and jumped up, standing at attention. "I apologize for this... situation, but you must understand our predicament when it comes to your sudden presence."

"I understand, sir." Union responded, bowing her head deeply. "And thank you... For giving me the chance to make things right."

Specter only nodded at this. Time would show how honest Union really was about her words. But as long as she gave him no reason to doubt her, Specter wouldn't do exactly that. And now, finally, he would have the chance to analyze this 'new' kind of raptor. Finally, he had a calm, relaxed opportunity to find out the exact species.

 _So... I really was right, after all. It was so simple... They're... Dakotaraptors..._

And Union was an impressive-looking Dakotaraptor at that. The slender female stood almost 190cm tall to her back and was just over 5m long, making her indeed quite a bit shorter than a Utahraptor of the same height, and also much, much lighter. She must've been weighing less than 300kg at best, Specter estimated. Other than that, Union sported mostly dull-colored feathers, given that she was a female, but they did not make her look harmless whatsoever. Although her complexion seemed to be dark grey, the feathers on her head, legs and whole underside were white. But she was not an albino, this was obvious as her main body, forelimbs and tail were colored in very dark brown, almost black feathers. Interestingly, the crest on her tail started already at half its length, basically making half her tail look like a huge fan. Were it not, as it was usual with raptors, semi-stiff.

And one could be forgiven for mistaking her kind with his, Specter deduced. Union really did look a lot like him when it came to appearance regardless of size and colors. She had the same two, massive sickle claws, the same feathered and clawed forelimbs, and the same sharp, piercing eyes, though hers were green instead of yellow.

But there were a few, fine differences nonetheless.

Most noticeably, Union's feathers really covered the entirety of her body from head to toe. Again, literally. She even had fuzz growing on the topside of her feet instead of the armored scutes Specter or Alba had there. The only part of her body which was not covered in feathers was her snout, all her teeth hidden inside of it, which was very evenly and elegantly shaped for such a heavily armed killer.

All in all, it made sense that Union, a Dakotaraptor, represented evolution's final form of big raptors.

But right as he was done with his observations, Specter's mood fell right back into a state of extreme earnestness. Having a Dakotaraptor in 'his' pack certainly was a nice thing, but he could already anticipate how hard life would be from now on. More members meant more things to look out for, more stress to handle every day. It didn't help that there was the potential for Union to be anything but a friend to him, Alba and Blaze.

But again, for now, Specter refused to think of her as an enemy, as long as she gave him no reason for that.

"Let's move out now. I'll brief you on the way, Union."

Following Specter's command, the pack of two Utahraptors, a Changyuraptor, and now a Dakotaraptor, resumed their journey.

* * *

 **Wow... This certainly came out as a big one. But I really wanted to wrap up a lot of things here, and I hope to have done this.  
**

 **Now then, to some explanations:**

 **If you hadn't guessed it already, and for the first time in the LBT universe, meet the 'new' kind of raptor. Dakotaraptor, the hunter which actually lived together with T-Rex in the late cretaceous. I hope you find a liking to that.** ** **:)** I went a bit controversial on Union's design, the minor details there, because I'd like to make them stand out some more from other raptors. There is evidence for the feathered feet, for example, but it's not generally accepted as of yet.**

 **As for the poem in this chapter: It is called "There Will Come Soft Rains", and it's by Sara Teasdale. I had planned to include this for ages, yet only found now to be a good time to do so. It is my personal favorite poem as well, by the way. ;)**

 **So, all in all, I hope you guys enjoyed this one here! Sadly, as I said, I am at a lack of time right now, so it's possible that this will be the only chapter this month.**

 **But I'm still eager to progress, that's for sure!**

 **And as always:**

 **Take care, and have a nice day!**


	29. Chapter 28: Perspectives I

**Chapter 28: Perspectives I  
**

 ** _"There are no facts, only interpretations." - Friedrich Nietzsche_**

A strange-looking volcano that accurately resembled a Triceratops head. A female Dakotaraptor who, apparently, looked and smelled closely alike one of the most gruesome hunters, killers, murderers, enemies around. Two sights that couldn't have been more unrelated to and different from another indeed, yet it were precisely those two sights between which Specter's eyes switched every half a minute.

Threehorn Peak, Union, Threehorn Peak, Union, Threehorn Peak, Union...

Only ten minutes had passed since this new fastbiter joined the pack, in theory making it a lot more dangerous with her mere presence but also leaving Specter in charge of four lives now. Alba's, Blaze's, Union's and his own. It might've been strange to count his own life as well, 'leading' and 'being in charge of' himself, but this was plainly because Specter preferred to have a constant reminder not to put his wellbeing before that of others.

Not as the leader of a pack of hunters. Though he didn't know for sure if he could go as far as, rationally and with a clear mind, decide to sacrifice himself for his friends, or anyone of importance in general, should an upcoming situation really demand this, he at least thought himself able to. More or less. A difficult, lingering question, especially now, but there was a certain resolve building up inside him.

Anyway, the little determination he had on that matter was enough of an answer to dismiss this sudden thought.

But maybe, taking the concept of a 'divided mind' one step further, it was also to keep this fearsome predator inside him under control. This other side of him, this primal voice, this Utahraptor that was supposed to have no problems with eating its prey alive, ripping it to pieces, feeling nothing, amongst many other things that he, the altered human, just considered overly 'savage'. Thus the part of Specter that controlled his every action had to stay human under all circumstances, this he forced upon himself. As long as it was just about one's wellbeing, though, he tried not to think much about anything else.

However, Union's most basic welfare, no matter if she'd be friend or foe in the end, was the whole problem at the moment. Homo sapiens or Utahraptor ostrommaysorum, mammal or dinosaur, human or raptor, what always remained within Specter has been his exceptional protective instinct.

 _She said she's been out here for almost two days... That wasn't a lie... That was the truth... I could smell it clearly... Poor girl... Two days in these types of lands means two days without any real food, maybe even without any clean water... No wonder she didn't stand a chance against Alba... Though I suppose I should be glad, shouldn't I?  
_

Now, he could already guess what had to be done. But he certainly didn't want to discuss this openly with all three females around. For good reason.

So far, there has been dead silence among the companions, making the tension which radiated especially from Alba even more noticeable. The albino fastbiter walked very closely to Specter's right flank, yet stayed far enough to his rear so that she could use her smaller size to look beneath his tail or belly and eye Union on his farther left with utmost care, a cold and mistrusting glare that Specter knew all too well. Alba had eyed him, too, in such a manner for a little while, after all.

Blaze emitted the same vibes, the same signs of uneasiness, even though she still couldn't really understand anything of what had recently happened. The glider had seemingly tried to distract herself by preening Specter's back feathers in search for any insects, but since she only found a single and tiny one, this had not lasted her for more than some two minutes. Funnily enough, were the current mood not so grave, and in spite of the recent amounts of Sky Water, it would've surprised her that Specter kept his whole plumage pretty much sparkling clean, something very unusual for the common dinosaur, to say the least, certainly for feathered ones that required very extensive grooming sessions.

And this whole situation, this tension, this uneasy silence, conflicted Specter in multiple ways, too.

Sure, there were multiple reasons for him to be happy, like having actual trees all around again, vegetated soil instead of ashes and bones below his feet. But also the silence itself, the thoughtless form of it, at least. He hadn't had anything against telling Alba so much about himself, pretty much everything there was to know about him, yet he was also fine with being forced to watch out for his words from now on, being forced to keep his sometimes careless mouth shut on most occasions. After all, he had basically talked more over the last two days than in the entirety of his new Utahraptor life combined. Maybe even more than in some months of his human life, now that he thought about it. So he was actually rather thrilled to be returning to his usual, quiet and slightly introverted demeanor.

But there was something else in this silence. In this awful, hurtful silence...

The growing unease in that deafening silence was definitely not what he had in mind upon starting this journey with Alba. As with her, he felt so incredibly relaxed and comfortable. He felt cared about, trusted and listened to. And it truly showed how much Alba cared about him now, especially when she had expressed her opinion about Union's presence. She had not even feared much for her own life, only for Specter's. It definitely wasn't her bothering him, as much as he would've liked her to ease up a little and give him some time to figure Union out.

There was another member, however, another individual to figure out. Just earlier this very day, Blaze joined them. But she really had not brought up any negative feelings whatsoever. Though, being completely honest with himself, maybe this was because Specter didn't exactly think of her as a new friend or companion just yet, rather a pet. A highly intelligent pet whose language he happened to share, and one he tried to refrain from treating as such. Yet again strange thoughts to have, perhaps borderline insulting towards the female Changyuraptor even, but he figured that he wouldn't need to word it this way in case anyone asked. Friend, companion or pet, he would look after Blaze just as much, up to the point when they reached the Great Valley to hopefully let her have a new, permanent home there.

No, the problem, Specter's main subject of conflict, once again was Union. For some reason, fully blending out her past or any potential dangers she might pose in the future, her plain presence here, so close by his side and in reach of Alba, simply felt wrong to him. A feeling that was nagging at him, never to stop however hard he may try.

 _Is this... what it was like for you then, Seeker? Before... and even after you took me in so quickly? I mean, with her... we definitely are an actual raptor pack now... And me being, sort of, the alpha..._

He had often wondered exactly why packs of carnivores absolutely always demanded from their newcomers to pass a challenge, but it was only now that Specter truly and 'first claw' understood the simple logic behind this. It was to satisfy the primal instincts, verify that a new member would be as competent as trustworthy. There was just no way around that practice for a pack of hunters, and it seemed like nature forced this upon every leader, every alpha, through their unforgiving instincts.

Now that Specter thought about this topic, he had already, back then unwittingly, given Blaze such a challenge last night. It had not been an easy task by any means, yet she completed it like a professional. Even if only to save her own feathers, but perhaps that was especially why it felt 'right' to have her perching on his back for the trip, have her around in general, even though she was only a 'small' Changyuraptor and thus of no benefit in a messy hunt or fight. And sure enough, Littlefoot had also given Specter an apparent challenge on his very first day with his pack. However, this only proved to Specter once more that he might have to anticipate a rather cold greeting soon. Since Littlefoot had ostensibly planned on getting hit by the threehorn and thus never was in life-threatening danger, the brown fastbiter had also rendered the desired result ineffective with his actions.

This should remain a very farfetched guess for the next time, though. At the moment, Specter couldn't say anything for certain but that he was starting to dread the future reunion with his first pack a bit.

 _Just... whatever it was, I hope you still remember me... You know, the real me... Your disciple and friend... Not this uncaring jerk I sometimes can be... You wouldn't kill me on sight, right? You'd give me a chance to explain myself when I come back with these two big girls by my side... Right? Ah, why do I worry so much? You're Seeker, of course you would give me another chance. I've nothing to hide, after all. And you're one of the good guys. And I didn't do anything bad. Then again, neither did I make much of a good impression when I left, did I? And what if Spotter actually came looking for me and saw me with...  
_

A light sigh escaped his mouth as he averted his gaze from the dark sky, clearing his thoughts, and looked forward again. What he could definitely say for certain, right now, was that he had to do something about the current atmosphere. This was far more important. Even without his instinctual concerns he didn't trust Union to the fullest, he really wasn't anywhere near that naive and blind to the subliminal signs enough for this to happen, but the female Dakotaraptor had also proven with her words and scents that there was no reason to distrust her as much as Alba did. There was absolutely no justifiable, discernible explanation at the moment.

At least Specter figured so to a very specific extent.

 _Even if everything she said was just one big fucking lie... Just a carefully made up, false story... I mean... 'A big sharptooth with dark feathers'...? That sounds an awful lot like... me, too... But it can't be... She knows... How could she lie? She must've been there, and if the raptor he killed was this 'Mist', Union knows it was Bloodhorn... But what if she wasn't, and...? No, impossible. They couldn't have. Besides, she also said she didn't mean us any harm... You cannot fake a statement like that... You cannot fake this honesty... You cannot claim this with other plans in mind. Well... maybe I could, but she's not me... She can't know about that, about imagination and believing in something different... Still... I think I might really need to make sure of her good heart sometime... Though, would Seeker's tactic really work on her? Even if it would, what if...? No. Doesn't matter... Too soon... Not yet, not now..._

As the landmark known as Threehorn Peak was only around a kilometer away, he finally decided to stop pondering and instead 'squash two buzzers with one stomp', as Chaser had sometimes put it. Three buzzers even, if he were to break down everything into details. Chaser, Wrath, Sharptooth, whatever his true name actually was, the now certainly deceased Tyrannosaurus sure had been blunt but indeed always on point and instructive with his phrases, Specter figured quickly as he raised his voice.

"Union?"

"Sir." She instantly reported to Specter's careful voice, though she seemed to have been deeply lost in her thoughts the whole time beforehand.

"You said that you waited for almost two days. So am I right in assuming that you haven't eaten anything in that time, up until now?"

She frowned slightly while looking at the ground for a moment, which made Union not notice that Alba certainly showed the same reaction on her face, albeit for another reason, as she immediately understood where this would lead to. Specter was extremely bad at hiding his future intentions with questions like that, Alba deduced grimly, yet in silence.

"Yes, sir. That is... correct." Union answered as she restored eye contact with the large fastbiter on her right. "I managed to catch one or two, maybe three scaly crawlers while I stayed there, but... not much else... Not a single leaf-eater ever returned, as you can imagine. And those who 'stayed', well... Not exactly edible anymore."

"How about water?"

"Neither, sir. I could not find a clear watering hole anywhere around, not without the... serious risk of missing you. Same as with food. The lands are vast but this one area, where I finally found you. What would I have done then, had I gotten distracted, ended up with no one to go to...? I did not even know if you would really come through our old lands, and... Well, yes, the Sky Water over the last days had made some fresh puddles, but with all this strange dust around there..."

"I see." Specter concluded his queries, all of his assumptions confirmed, then using his right forelimb to point forwards at the area close to Threehorn Peak. "Alright then, since you must still know your way around here for the most part, scout ahead and report everything you can find in the vicinity. Leaf-eaters, sharpteeth, caves, water... Everything. Can you do that for me?"

Union nodded firmly and already prepared herself to sprint off right the next moment, yet she was forced to wait for another as Specter extended his left forelimb, blocking her way with his wing, and made a quick addition.

"But stay alert, will you? Even if this was your home once, mostly, I guess a lot has changed around here since you and your... acquaintances were forced to leave. Especially as you're probably running on fume-... Anyway, just one quick scouting run, got it?"

Though part of her, somehow, wanted her to believe that this shouldn't have surprised her, Union was actually taken aback. She was taken aback by what felt an awful lot like honest concern and kindness coming from the murderous, male sharptooth. So much so that she didn't even notice Specter's peculiar choice of words in the last part. And now she wanted to contemplate all this in more detail, but rather dismissed the desire as swiftly as she could. Her brother had told her enough about this black fastbiter and his actual, far-away pack. All those short, precise but still seemingly never ending stories. Just how could she ever doubt Skull's word? How could she ever doubt her brother, who saved not only her and Decay but also so many others already?

No, Union decided, she would not let this male fastbiter here fool her with his fake emotions and dangerous lies. She would never let that happen. Instead, she would have to be even more careful around him, it seemed.

 _You will show your true face soon enough... You can't pretend forever..._ _Truth always prevails..._

"Understood." Union ultimately answered, waited for Specter to lower his forelimb again and sprinted off as soon as her path was clear.

Specter watched her sprinting form until she disappeared in the vegetation ahead, his assumptions concerning the speed of Dakotaraptors also confirmed. Union really was immensely fast, despite evidently not even in her optimal shape. And still she pretty much, though still not quite, matched Alba's exceptional speed. But this didn't come as too much of a surprise, given Union's slender, defined body and low weight. As Specter then turned his gaze over to Alba, he could see her wearing a tell-tale expression on her face. Another thing that didn't come as a surprise, as Alba's facial features communicated neither anger nor confusion. It was this innocent look again, this shy, caring and deeply concerned side of her which almost never surfaced, and it was already clear to Specter what she wanted to express with that.

"Please don't tell me you are planning on doing what I think you are..." Alba explained her countenance, a borderline begging tone in her voice, but one that she unintentionally managed to hide from Specter, appearing to be more doubtful than afraid.

"I am. She needs to eat something and have a drink, badly." Specter responded dryly. Though he understood very well what his friend thought of Union's condition, and could actually relate to those feelings in some way, he once again wanted to explain his reasoning so that there would be no huge discussion following. "On a quick hunt, she can get both. I won't treat her like an outcast only because of her past allies... Who, mind you, allegedly tried to kill her. Look, I know how all of this sounds to you. Again. I don't believe myself either... But it's just not right. Nobody benefits if we let her hunger, especially not us. Two days isn't much, granted, but that can quickly turn into three or four days. Eventually, she'd only slow all of us down, or worse, turn on us. I'd prefer she didn't. Ever. So I will treat her like our guest for now, as long as she doesn't give me one reason not to. Besides, I still need to brief her and ask a few more questions."

"And... I take it you want to do that alone?"

"Yes, I do." He remained firm. Admittedly, he really would have preferred to have Alba by his side for this, just for the worst-case scenario, but it made sense in his mind to split up for a while. "I mean... You almost killed her. So, don't take it personally but... I think she might not feel very comfortable around you right now."

Alba couldn't have been more indifferent about how Union felt around her, so she really didn't take it personally. Actually, she _wanted_ this dangerous fastbiter to feel uncomfortable around her. She _wanted_ Union to watch her every step, not even dare to think about raising a claw against anyone of the pack, especially Specter. This aside, Alba didn't like his idea at all. To her, it was still clear that Union was only waiting for the right moment to kill him, take her dear, first and only remaining friend away from her for the means of bringing about even more needless deaths. Probably to avenge Bloodhorn's disgusting brothers or something, she obviously could not tell for certain. Whatever it was, though, if Specter went on a hunt with Union by himself, it was very likely that exactly one of those suitable moments might soon come. On a hunt, he would eventually turn his back towards her, and however big Specter might have been, Alba knew that one good slice or pierce from one of Union's killing claws could very safely, and slowly and painfully, end his life. She had once gotten far too close to doing this to him herself, after all. A memory she suppressed like very few others.

"And I reckon you might enjoy a little rest after all this... stress. So, in the meantime..." Specter started concluding his plans, flexing his neck around to look at Blaze for a moment, then back at Alba. "Why don't you two get to know each other a bit while you're waiting?"

Soon as he said that, Blaze stirred noticeably, made herself as small as she could manage and clinged around his neck with one of her forelimbs, almost hiding between his feathers. Alba easily noticed the glider's fearful reaction, something which annoyed her in more ways than one. She neither felt the need nor desire to make herself acquainted with this little red fuzzball, but neither did she want to come across overly cold.

Not anymore.

For so long, she had tried to take after Shade, thinking that he would have so much more to teach her about this world and its inhabitants. To be vigilant, trust nobody but herself and those who were ready to shed blood for her.

And for what?

For her own, beloved brother to betray her in the most heinous of ways, leave her behind at the mercy of vile creatures, not even dare to watch what had almost happened to her. Shade's true face revealed, cold, emotionless, uncaring.

So by now, she actually tried to be more like Specter, this big black fuzzball she had so much despised for quite some time, to be at least a little bit more outgoing. Perhaps, no, _probably_ never would she truly share and agree with all of his unique traits, but at least some. At least that much she could do. For as much as she disliked his friendly, honestly careless, attitude towards Union; if not for Specter's kind and forgiving attitude in most cases overall, where would she be right now, Alba asked herself once more.

And, of course, she still knew the answer to her own question.

 _Alone, humiliated... Destined to suffer... and die..._

So she ultimately decided to just listen to Specter's words, as there must have been more to them. She knew him decently well enough by now to know that he only reluctantly shared his full plans and thoughts, and rather trusted her to make her own conclusions. That's what it had seemed like so far, at any rate. Just another one of his strange antics, Alba figured, but perhaps for the best in the current and future situations alike. After all, neither Blaze nor Union were supposed to know about Specter's past, and neither were they supposed to feel like there was something going on behind their backs.

 _So... You don't only want me to 'get to know' her, do you? You want me to find out about her past, and if what she claimed is true..._

Having understood this, Alba gave Blaze her most friendly face, not an easy task in and of itself when taken into consideration that she had rather seldom felt any joy in her life, and moved a bit closer to Specter, offering her back to the red glider. Blaze stood up again and looked down at her, already extending her wings a little, yet still hesitated quite noticeably as she then looked at Specter with asking, unsure eyes.

"She won't eat you, don't worry. And if you trust me not to harm you, you can trust her." He encouraged Blaze, wearing a slight, amused and understanding smile.

Blaze took a deep breath in response, closing her eyes for a moment, sorting out her emotions. Her hesitation, frankly, didn't even have all too much to do with Alba's aggressive behavior towards her on the last night. She was aware of how much this female fastbiter cared about her male companion, to the point where Blaze started wondering who was actually protecting who in this pack. And since she had injured Specter with her stupid mistake caused by desperation and lack of experience, almost clawing one of his large eyes out, she deduced that she was actually beyond lucky to have lived long enough for Specter to deliver his reasonable verdict and grant her a second chance.

Or rather, _the_ chance of her entire life. A life in the mysterious Great Valley, in almost complete safety, certainly wasn't something many predators, dinosaurs in general, could expect.

No, it was rather because Alba, being one of those extremely rare White Ones, and just on top of that completely unfeathered, just could not offer any of the conveniences that Specter could. She had no soft, fluffy plumage anywhere, just bare white skin and scales, meaning that Blaze would seriously have to watch out for her own feet, lest she wanted to risk scratching her, too, with one wrong move. After all, Specter's feathers offered him enough protection from her claws while she perched on his back. It also didn't help that a certain part of her told her again and again to stay away from Alba, stay away from that ugly white coloration she had, or rather the lack of any color. Like earlier, with the cleanliness of Specter's feathers, it would have immensely surprised Blaze how indifferent the black fastbiter was about his friend's 'special' appearance, but right now she quickly figured that he most likely has been friends with Alba for a long time already.

And that was enough of an explanation to ease her mind a bit.

So in the end, Blaze took heart once more, pushed everything aside and finally jumped down on Alba's back, and with utmost carefulness she adjusted her position so that she could perch there halfway comfortably.

Specter concluded this little, awkwardly innocent interaction with a satisfied smile, afterwards looking forwards again to await Union's return as he gestured for Alba to reduce the pace now. And then there was silence yet again, not even the slight rainfall from before to be heard, as it had stopped by now. Only the two fastbiters' slowing footsteps and distant, muffled sounds of life could be heard. But this time it was an at least partially relaxed silence, maybe because a clear plan lay in the air.

Or maybe because Union would be gone for some twenty minutes.

* * *

 **A bit later:**

As Union broke through the underbrush, the task given to her obviously well completed, and laid eyes on the waiting pack she now somehow belonged to, she couldn't help but frown heavily. Suddenly, she could feel this anger building up inside her. This rage. This contempt. This disgust. This desire to just charge ahead and let her claws do the work right now instead of sometime in the far future. Even though she had known from the start that her overall task, waiting for the 'right moment' to avenge her friend and help her actual allies, would be anything but easy, she had honestly never expected that it would be this hard to keep her emotions under control.

Returning to this pack, having done things _for_ them, about to work together _with_ them, certainly felt entirely different from just joining them. For a reason, obviously, as Union has spent some time with them now, and this ridiculously small amount of time was everything she needed to confirm what she knew anyway.

Only the most disgusting sharpteeth were able to pretend, able to lie, able to hide their true personalities, able to be true fake-faces. This was common knowledge, it belonged to the most important lessons for each and every single fastbiter to be aware of those dangers. And even those very few masterful fake-faces had to be extremely careful with what they said, as nobody could alter their scents. It just wasn't possible, there was no way to do such a thing.

And Union knew that. She knew all of it. But most of all, Union knew she just wasn't that kind of sharptooth. She wouldn't be able to continuously be something she just wasn't. After all, there was a reason why she had been the trusted leader of the reserves until recently, Skull's direct deputy in the overall order of ranks, keeping all those different kinds of sharpteeth together. It was her caring nature, her desire to look after her peers, making sure that everyone was alright. This was what Union stood for. Ironically this so fitting name being but a vestige of happier days, and it was rather her new name, Discord, which she embraced nowadays.

However, this Specter...

This liar. This pretender. This wrongdoer. This murderer. This monster. He apparently could, he was apparently able to hide his true face even from his companions such as that strange glider or the White One.

Yes, Union figured, now that she contemplated her, the White One, 'Alba'. In a way, a subject of great problem to her, a truly unexpected turn of events to have her still here and seemingly rather close to Specter. Alba was indeed Shade's sister, strangely enough, but her scents confirmed that to Union. Just why some cold renegade with messed up ideals, such as Shade, would want this hideous dinosaur back, she could not comprehend. Evidently, even if Shade were able to bring her back right now, someone would eventually rid her from the living. Rightfully so, given what she had heard led to this peculiar incident in the past. It would certainly be more of a favor than keeping her alive until the inevitable came anyway.

And yet, Union was actually immensely thankful for Alba's presence, in another, very special way. She really was.

As, thanks that cursed White One, it couldn't have been any easier to fool the black fastbiter for a change. He must've been more of an idiot than Union had originally expected, as he had not even realized that she had basically given herself away already in that short outburst of emotions, by directly hinting at her desire to kill him, by mentioning a 'big sharptooth with dark feathers', mentioning Specter himself.

It was beyond ironic that this White One of all dinosaurs had probably ensured her survival earlier by just being there.

 _Hmm... 'I mean you no harm'... Indeed... You, White One, I don't mean any harm... Though you'd deserve it... No, you'll perish anyway... but not by my claws..._

It helped a lot that it had been Skull's clear order not to touch the White One anyway, in case she stuck around. Which she had indeed, apparently, so Union would comply. Any particular reasons for such minor details did not interest her.

Having firmly concluded this line of thinking, and to avoid her scents becoming corrupted by anger and disgust, her eyes quickly switched over to the red glider, who was surprisingly now perching on said White One's back. This sight began to even her emotions again, as she felt a bit sorry for the, in comparison, small female sharptooth.

 _Just what are you doing here? Hmm... Yes,_ _surely... He forced you... Perhaps to find food for him because he couldn't see with that eye Mist almost took from him... until recently... But now that he can, he'll end you, sooner or later... Once you appear useless... it's over.  
_

The obvious, cold methods of the disgraceful pack leader disgusted her to the core. Though, ultimately, Union was completely indifferent about the glider's fate, of course. This was no time to pity anyone, not while she had a mission to complete. Until then, until that mission was completed, she would only care about herself for once in her life.

No, the only important thing was, whoever this small sharptooth might've been and whatever her reasons to stay with this pack were, perhaps she could serve as a powerful, albeit unknowing ally, Union deduced. This glider could serve as a last resort in the most improbable scenario, when she really faced imminent failure. If the glider lived longer than a few days from now, that was.

However, she would not fail. Because she would not change, she would not pretend, she would not lie. She simply would not be a fake-face. She would be true to who she was. So the exact opposite of the black fastbiter, who would soon enough realize that his ways only granted him a sad demise. Nevertheless, it would be easy enough for Union to be pull that off, staying low and yet still honest, because she has always been a very quiet and reserved fastbiter unless there was an absolute need to have an extensive talk. And when there was, she knew exactly what to say. Or show.

But it was this very thought about herself which then abruptly caused her to assume something when it came to her target of elimination. Something which deeply unnerved her, almost made her stop moving, but at the same time calmed her emotions even further. It was long since clear to her that Specter wanted to head out on a hunt with her soon, and also that he wouldn't be doing that out of the goodness of his nonexistent heart. He obviously had other means, there was no doubt.

 _No, I was wrong... You cannot be that stupid... after everything you did... You figured me out already... but you're unsure... and you also find use in my presence at the moment... Yes, that's it... And now you want to test me, isn't that right?_

This meant she had most likely misjudged Specter's wit. She really, really had to keep herself under control at all times from now on, Union deduced. Perhaps just in time for her to realize so, as the waiting pack of sharpteeth was only twice her own length away by now. She couldn't allow herself any more pondering. Or any more erratic emotions, for that matter.

And as such, Union's decision when it came to her stay with this pack was very swift to make, though anything but easy.

 _Fine... I will do as you said, brother... I will obey him... From now on, Specter, I will obey you... Whatever you say, I will listen... Whatever you want to know, I will answer... Wherever you go, I will follow... I will fight for you, hunt for you, kill for you... Until the very last moment, the very right moment... Just you wait, it will come... sooner than you'll like... And then... Then, I will kill you..._

* * *

"Welcome back, Union. Find anything? Some good news, for a change?"

Specter would have also liked to say that Union's quick return came as a pleasant surprise, but there really wasn't anything pleasant about it. Not just yet, when his instincts have yet to be presented a good reason to accept her presence.

Still, he was rather impressed with her indeed. Union had completed her task in way less than fifteen minutes, and her confident posture indicated nothing but success. Although the scenario that was very soon about to happen, hunting again on the very same day, participating in taking at least _one_ life again, was exactly what Specter had tried to avoid by stuffing himself full with Altirhinus meat this morning, he was looking forward to it anyway. At least a little bit.

It wasn't even so much the thought about hunting again that bothered him, but rather that he never liked it when something, or someone, got in the way of his plans, forcing him to adapt to a new situation, reshaping what he had already checked off. It always made him feel uncomfortable and annoyed, this being perhaps a remainder of his rather spoiled life as a human.

Though, the change in plans might just about result in a few positive things, too. Not only would he be able to watch Union's abilities and get to know her a bit, maybe even learn some new moves himself, but perhaps also silence that inner voice of his. And maybe this little break would enable Alba and Blaze to become acquainted as well.

The female Dakotaraptor continued to close in on Specter until she stood face to face with him. Then she briefly lowered her head before raising it again, along with her tail, ultimately remaining in this stance. It surprised him a bit, but Specter didn't think much about this behavior. Union obviously exercised extreme awareness of her new leader, and carefully followed the procedure of approaching a raptor of his size and apparent rank. And even though Specter didn't want to be treated like this by any of his companions, he kept his quiet for now.

"Sir." Union then spoke up. "Only good news. There is a domehead territory in another part of this forest nearby, six potential targets; a small watering hole at the foot of those cliffs next to the Smoking Mountain, one small cave there, abandoned; no other big leaf-eaters or sharpteeth in the area."

"Hmm. I see... Well done." Specter answered to her very concise report. Though he always liked to hear details, for example what exactly Union considered to be 'big sharpteeth', in this case only the most important things mattered. She probably meant no other carnivores around bigger than Dakotaraptors or Utahraptors, and certainly no sharpteeth rivaling his size, Specter simply figured. It also pleased him to hear there was a watering hole nearby, so Union wouldn't have to actively drink her prey's blood in order to temporarily quench her thirst. One buzzer had already been stomped, it seemed. "Then I'd say let's go get you some food now, first. You can drink afterwards to wash everything down, and then we'll hopefully be all on our way again, until the night falls. Sounds good to you?"

"Most definitely, sir." Union quickly responded, nodding once. However, this slight nod literally was the only thing even close to an emotion that came along with her statement.

And this time it truly surprised Specter, to have actually heard a considerable amount of apathy in Union's voice when she must've evidently been very hungry and thirsty.

 _Strange... That's not how any hungry raptor I got to know has ever reacted when it comes to food... Hmm... Maybe all of this still is a little too much for her... Someone like me giving out orders... until recently her enemy... Or maybe she just tries to stay very serious and respectful around me... I certainly would be, if I was in her feathers..._

So he only nodded in affirmation, too.

"Alright, good. Take point then." Specter then said to Union, who simply returned another nod. But as she turned around and already took a few steps away from him, he turned his attention to Alba and Blaze for a moment, cautiously lowering his deep voice to a whisper, a hissing mumbling that was barely intelligible even to them. "You two wait for us at that watering hole she mentioned, ok? This won't take long, I promise."

Specter's last sentence was especially meant for Alba, who still carried this extremely worried look on her face, despite having been briefly informed about his plan in the time Union had been gone. And seeing how she still had her back turned towards everyone for now, Alba decided to act swiftly. She edged closer to Specter, stretched her neck and placed her head under his, pressing the topside of her snout against his lower jaw.

"Be careful."

Specter returned the little pressure Alba applied on his head, this subtle and weird, yet still protective kind of embrace. Had he been given any more time to ponder this gesture, he would've realized that this was something he had only observed before once in his life. Namely in wolf packs, between the alpha male and alpha female. The ultimate sign of trust and protection.

But right now his thoughts lay elsewhere, and his answer came spontaneously, but with confidence.

"I will."

Following this assurance, Specter detached himself from her and took a few big steps forwards to regroup with Union so that she wouldn't notice anything odd, leaving Alba standing there, her bright blue eyes following him and especially his elusive hunting companion until both fastbiters slowly disappeared somewhere in the green. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, looked slightly to her right at Threehorn Peak again and then flexed her neck around to Blaze.

"Come on. Let's find that watering hole..."

* * *

 **Well then... It's certainly been some time, hasn't it?**

 **Now, you're probably almost shocked that, after all this time, THIS amount of content is what I am releasing. Less than 7k words. Certainly those to who I have spoken to, occasionally, and promised a really lengthy chapter.  
Indeed so, but let me explain. You'll likely have noticed the "I" in the title already, so yes, there will be a "II", possibly a "III" if things go completely out of hand. I have once again split an absurd monstrosity of a chapter into smaller pieces. This one just happens to be a bit smaller and less, I guess "progressive", than what I would normally consider worthy of publishing. But I simply found no other way to make the split. Still, I hope this is still enjoyable for what it is.  
**

 **Alright, so at this point, I of course want to apologize for this humongous delay. Actually, not so much the delay itself, rather the lack of communication from my side. Months ago already I had considered putting up a placeholder chapter in which I would have explained myself. But then I just kept telling myself that it would only be one or two weeks until I was finished and ready to publish, so I delayed even that time and time again...**

 **So, what is the reason for this? Well, I want to put it plain and simple, and especially honest: I had/have sort of lost motivation to write, to engage in this topic and lore. This, sadly, is part of my character, my mentality. I would put loads and loads of time and resources into a particular medium to spend my time, but then suddenly lose interest in it. And it's the same with many things, really, even basic stuff such as food. Too much of a single meal and I can't stand it anymore after a few weeks.  
**

 **Yes, university has, at times, kept me from really writing with a clear mind, but the last thing I want to do now is find excuses. So I will not delve further into this topic. All I can say is that I will never force myself to write, and thus future installments might appear sporadically, like this one, or not at all.**

 **Good news is, however, that I have 50% of the second part done already, so I still hope to be releasing that around the start of 2017.**

 **And I also want to use this opportunity to thank you all for the support, via reviews, favs, follows, or simple views. I would never have imagined that there is a real interest for this plot, and this is why I take my time to really think everything through. Which can lead into situations such as this one, unfortunately. And that's even though I have, in theory, so much more planned for the future. Besides making The Eighth Hunter a story truly interesting and unique at it's very core, a sequel to this, very possibly in cooperation with Rhombus, would only be the start. Two other stories in other universes, as well. Perhaps more, depending on future releases.**

 **Alright then, these were just the things on my mind that I wanted to get out. Again, I am sorry for not communicating properly with you guys, but I do hope you understand that this story is something very dear to my heart by now, and I will never give up on it entirely until it is done, nor will I publish solely for the sake of publishing.**

 **So for now, thank you for your time and understanding. I do hope you had a nice few weeks, have a nice evening/day, do take care, have an awesome start into 2017, and I'll see you next time!**


	30. Chapter 29: Perspectives II

**Chapter 29: Perspectives II  
**

 ** _"There are no facts, only interpretations." - Friedrich Nietzsche_**

Specter followed Union by her side, every now and then carefully eyeing her while the two feathered fastbiters were making their way in a fast trot towards the hunting ground she had found. Partially to inspect this female Dakotaraptor in all her details out of simple interest for her astonishing species he knew not all too much about, partially to make sure she wouldn't suddenly do something harmful to him. He didn't want to focus so much on her because of the latter, he didn't want to do so at all, actually, but he simply couldn't push these concerns aside.

Especially now. It was one thing just having someone around he had yet to 'test', but an entirely other to officially hunt together with that someone. At least that's what his instinctual voice lectured him over and over.

However, Specter didn't exactly plan to 'hunt together' with Union in a broader sense of what could be understood by that, so his struggle with her remained mostly controlled, entirely internal. No scents of insecurity or doubt, let alone fear, radiated from him. And it would hopefully stay that way for now, vanish as soon as he watched her capabilities in action. It just had to.

Around five uneventful minutes like this went by. Then, amidst all the uncountable other scents inside this dense forest, still slightly distorted by the wet air and recent rainfall, Specter finally started smelling the 'domeheads' clearly. Thanks to dinosaur knowledge and basic logic he already knew exactly what this term referred to, namely the distinctive and yet very commonly found clade of the Pachycephalosauridae; but, as with so many things in his new life, that enthusiastic knowledge, though nice to have, would not benefit him here at all. Because he had yet to hunt such a dinosaur, get really close to one, he was not able to narrow down those scents to the specific kind of domehead. Something of significant importance when it came to developing a suitable strategy. Pachycephalosaurs came in many different kinds and sizes, after all, and different levels of danger with that. Maybe not quite for himself to a larger degree, certainly not in the upcoming hunt, but quite possibly for Union.

What Specter could smell and narrow down, however, were the six dinosaurs' genders.

 _Hmm... Two males, four females... Ok, yeah, but... something's odd..._

Though the stereoscopic sense of smell of a Tyrannosaurus would've done a much more precise job, obviously, the layout of Specter's nostrils and his sheer size for a raptor granted him a small part of that incredible ability, too.

The 'odd' thing about those scents was their distribution. One of the males was quite a far distance away from the other domeheads, too far to belong to the group and just be looking for some food, for example, while the other male appeared to be very close to the females. And yet, all those scents had something familiar to them. Something which connected them, somehow.

A unique note that was so barely noticeable he could've been forgiven for just imagining a relation of any sort, Specter deduced.

 _Hmm... A family? Distant relatives? No, way too subtle... We're just about downwind... Under normal conditions, I could smell those things from kilometers away... Still... There is something... Maybe once we get a visual on them, I'll know... Yeah... Well, at least the group's all stationary, it seems... Not the casual bunch of friends, or a herd or flock or whatever, that's for sure...  
_

This got him really interested, so he decided to inquire if Union had made more detailed observations on her spotting run earlier.

"Ahem..."

"Sir." Union once more responded immediately, cutting Specter off before he could even start his sentence. Then again, he had hesitated to express himself long enough for Union to decide that another show of her new allegiance to him was very much appropriate. Since she was looking straight forwards while doing this, though, she did not notice him flinch in surprise.

"Yeah... Hey, listen..." Specter then tried to start his sentence anew, this time to come out briefer, more precise and without hesitation. "These domeheads here, their scents are... quite interesting. You observed them just now, right? What can you tell me about them?"

Union made eye-contact, analyzing the look on Specter's face, figuring out the exact reason for his question. Though even a single domehead could be highly dangerous to an inexperienced fastbiter in a direct fight, they would have no chance whatsoever against herself _and_ this humongous abomination that was Specter.

He wouldn't have her attack multiple domeheads by herself, would he? He would distract and let her quickly dispatch the domehead that was isolated for the time being, wouldn't he? And if he really wanted to go after the entire group, he would be joining in too, eager to draw some more blood, surely.

So, why ever would a fastbiter of his size and ruthlessness care about such details, Union pondered in some of her own surprise.

 _Unless... Ah, of course..._

"My apologies, sir." She then spoke, quickly bowing her head, having understood that this merely was a subliminal test of her basic spotting and analytical capabilities. "Yes, and as you will have noticed, they do indeed share an... interesting connection, though not uncommon. Five of them appear to be in a mating group. The remaining male stalked after them, last time I have had vision on him. He is preparing to confront the group's leader soon, I presume. For what precise reason, I cannot say for certain. It is evident to me, however, that he will not act kindly towards him."

Specter nodded firmly, yet only to hide from Union that he was quite confused, as he couldn't help but ask himself the obvious.

 _What the hell is a 'mating group' supposed to...?_ _Wait..._

Then, however, he realized what, and now couldn't help but smirk faintly as he looked forwards again.

 _ _Hmm, I see..._ One Pachy male, together with multiple Pachy females... A small harem... Intriguing...  
_

Basically, the term 'harem' referred to a group consisting of one dominant male, sometimes a second male subservient to it, and at least two females with potential offspring. In this case four females, but without children. And as the prehistoric term 'mating group' already suggested, there was only one purpose for it other than basic protection for the respective members. It was another one of those things Specter had yet to see among dinosaurs with his own eyes in his new Utahraptor life, and the likelihood of there being a challenger to the dominant male nearby also made it likely that this hunt would turn out to be very quick and smooth.

Both of which he welcomed very much. Two male domeheads fighting out the right to stay with the females would certainly make one of them pay dearly for it, definitely leaving one injured and dazed. This setup was everything any predator could ever have hoped for.

Even more so, knowing what the simple rules of this game were, Specter began to understand what this 'connection' of the scents probably meant.

 _So... that's why? A rematch, huh? It's always greed, isn't it? One's probably nabbed the other's girls, some time ago, and now he wants them back. Guess we'll soon see a fierce exchange of headbutts, or rather swings... I wonder who the lucky guy will be... and who the unfortunate... Man, that's so not worth it... Leisure like that... in this time, where every day could be your last? Too costly..._

But he was quick to refrain from extending his thoughts any further. Not only out of respect for both males, as keeping one's personal harem safe must've been anything but an easy and relaxed task, but also because he really shouldn't be joking about the upcoming fight.

For a very specific reason.

After all, Specter himself was accompanied by three females at this point. Apart from Alba they were of different species and thus completely unsuitable for mating, sure, and neither did he have any noticeable kind of sexual interest in dinosaurs anyway just yet, true; however, this wouldn't help him much if another male raptor, may it be Dakotaraptor or Utahraptor, or perhaps even something else entirely, drew the wrong conclusions and decided to try something very bold and stupid. The chances for that to happen were indeed very low, but not quite low enough to deem them impossible.

Nothing ever was impossible, this much Specter had learned by now.

 _As if that would happen... I mean, this is a pack, not my personal group of... Well... And besides, who's gonna be stupid enough to challenge me over that, anyway? But even so..._

Impetuous thoughts these were, and troubling to Specter, too, slowly filling him with concern and extreme embarrassment alike. Not to mention that he began to contemplate Alba's appearance again, and the considerable tactical advantage for him and the others that she was being viewed as 'ugly' by any potential opponents because of her full-on albinism, keeping them away from her vicinity. It was actually quite ridiculous how beneficial her condition would be for the pack's integrity, in the long run.

So he rather focused on the domehead scents again as he and Union ventured deeper and deeper into the forest.

 _I wonder what her plan will be... The most straightforward one, I guess... If I'm correct, the previous leader is around here somewhere, and he's close enough to the rest to get there within minutes... Chances are high they'll bash their heads in, literally... Easy meal, easy life, for the most part..._

Specter interrupted his thoughts for a moment, sparing a glance at Union once more.

 _But then there's her. Hope she realizes I won't be helping her with this one... Hmm... I hate this crap, but I just have to... Otherwise, I'll never be able to close an eye around her... Argh! I need more time, dammit! I need to watch...  
_

 **Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!**

It was at this point finally that those sounds broke him out of his thoughts and became clearly discernible out of the many others in this dense forest. Sounds of a heavy object bashing against another, less 'robust' object. Specter could only imagine that his sense of hearing must've been better than Union's in most situations, but since she briefly made eye contact and nodded once, he knew for sure that she could pick up this noise as well right now and intended to take him to the source.

One hundred meters later then, the two fastbiters had just about eyesight on both 'objects', situated around another fifty meters away from them to their left behind a lot of foliage. One was an unfortunate tree, already visibly damaged, the other the dangerous skull of an enraged dinosaur.

 _Hmm... Skull shape; body size close to a raptor; beak with small, serrated teeth; small arms with five fingers... Yes, even from here I can tell that that's definitely a Pachycephalosaurus... So this must be the challenger..._

Specter allowed himself to stop for a few seconds and watch the bulky, dark grey with spots of red around its eyes and throat, male domehead fiercely annihilate the tree. It was quite literally on all its six toes, and highly agitated, so much so that Specter felt uncomfortable just watching, almost feeling sorry for the tree. With every swing of its heavily armored head, dozens of sharp splinters of wood flew into all directions. While doing so, the dinosaur definitely spoke some words in leaf-eater, but as it was usual when one didn't speak a language since birth, or hatching, Specter could only understand the various, and admittedly disgusting, insults in between the domehead's other words. Though he could've sworn repeatedly hearing the word 'traitor'.

Whatever else but those insults the domehead uttered, however, it was already enough for Specter, for it was solid evidence that this dinosaur was bursting to battle the one who had subdued it in the past. And he was pretty sure that this upcoming rematch would happen very soon, by the looks of it.

The plan was set now.

"Sir? Permission to speak freely?"

Until Union suddenly broke the silence between the two fastbiters, Specter had not even noticed that she had stopped with him and was standing right in front of him now, once more giving him a very careful and submissive look.

"Granted." Specter answered, seemingly absentminded, as he was still observing the domehead to his left. Union's understanding of this hunt must've been exactly like his own, as would any logical thinking predator's be, so he ruled out this topic for the upcoming talk. But he was still interested to hear whatever it was she wanted to say.

"I understand that my presence must conflict you heavily, evidently more than you're showing..." Union continued honestly and, much to Specter's relief, for the first time without addressing him like he was a supreme commander.

 _You don't have a clue how much..._ Specter added in his mind, still somewhat occupied with eyeing the potential prey. He did so because he had come to realize that by not focusing directly on Union, his instincts didn't bother him as much about her. It was basically like blending out everything but her voice. This granted him a little bit more control over his senses, which in turn enabled him to think clearly and neutrally study most words and scents Union emitted.

"And I'm truly thankful that you have granted me this opportunity, get a chance to be here, to do the only thing I have left and fight for what is right. But both of us know I cannot be part of your pack without showing you who I am, what I can do, why I am of use, preferably before the Night Circle rises and I keep everyone from sleeping. So, to cut it short, I would just like to say... I can handle that one over there alone. He's distracted in his rage. I can approach in silence and take him down swiftly. Just give the word."

That statement forced Specter to switch his full attention back to her, surprise distinctly visible in his, as of lately, rather neutral and exhausted look.

 _And she's really bursting to prove herself to me, isn't she? That can be a good sign... But... what if...?_

"That won't be necessary." He then answered before his thoughts were able to drift off into instinctual negativity again. "I don't know what you're used to, but as part of... _this_ pack, your safety comes first." Specter then raised his forelimb and made a circular motion with his claws around the domehead in the distance. "Look at the density of those trees there, how little room to maneuver there is around him. And I think he knows he's bound to attract sharpteeth, with all that nonsense..." He lowered his arm again and focused back on Union. "No, we have a much better opportunity on our claws. Without the need to fight. And I'll think of another way for you to prove yourself. For now, let's check on the other domeheads and wait there, shall we?"

Having voiced his opinion, he would have really liked to see Union's reaction to that, as her scents seemed to go through an extremely quick and very subtle change before returning to normal, but she even denied him a clear view on her face, one to read, by closing her eyes and bowing her head so deeply that her snout almost touched the ground.

"Understood, sir. I see... We shall wait for one of them to get injured in a fight. Whatever it is you want me specifically to do, though, I will not disappoint you. I will not fail you. Never."

And once Union raised her head again, restoring eye contact, Specter knew this was as much as he would get from her.

Following this, the female fastbiter spun around and respectfully took point once more, resuming the trip that would now lead to the domehead group. While on the way, Specter once more went over everything he would've liked to know and wanted to tell her. There were just too many uncertainties with Union right now to not tackle this problem. And he was sure that, to Union, there were at least just as many uncertainties with him.

 _This just doesn't let me go... This gut feeling... It can't be coincidence... Can it...? Have they, somehow, twisted this to their advantage? Am I, of all the damn dinosaurs in these lands, known as a murderer among them? Am I known as... a monster... for protecting my friend? And... is she right about her?  
_

However, being this sort of overly respectful kind of person Specter simply was when dealing with new individuals, he also wanted to not push the matter too far. Because, being honest with himself, it didn't really interest him whose sibling Union was and what she had done in the past as his enemy. Or he at least didn't want to judge her for it.

What mattered to him was the here and now, and the future.

 _Who knows? Hell, maybe she even helped with killing the Argentinosaurus herd... however that really went down... Maybe she did even worse things... But I can't be like that... I can't judge a soldier for following their orders... can I? She's on our side now, right? I mean... This 'Calin' used to have anyone who disobeyed him tortured, killed and eaten, sometimes whilst still alive... I'm sure Seeker didn't exaggerate there, certainly not Leap... So few had the courage to act, and almost all of them died... Their names forgotten but a handful... Heroism is a myth... Bravery doesn't mean shit when you're dead... And given how obedient Union seems..._

All of that depended on whether Union had actually only followed orders, of course. Any hint of maliciousness from her would utterly crush Specter's whole basis on the desire to admit her in the pack, this much was certain to him. More so, his desire to keep her alive for now. Though, there was at least little evidence that she had held a high position among her past allies. She was simply too quiet and submissive for a former leader, at current glance, which made that scenario unlikely. And sure, this could've been explained by extreme discipline and training to overcome this immense challenge, but it just didn't feel like that to Specter. Union's personality just felt... real, despite some oddities that were all subjects of personal interpretation in the first place.

After all, having apparently lost a friend and almost her own life to her past allies only a few days ago, it was only natural for Union to be very reclusive and careful, mentally unstable even, for the next couple of days.

However, Specter definitely was aware of this aforementioned challenge, this mental challenge that Union likely wouldn't be facing. It was something he understood very well by now, and began to fear, integrating back into a pack that had an alpha. As in, even if Littlefoot gave him a second chance; it would take a lot, an awful lot, of self-control for Specter to give up his current position as an alpha and start anew as a subordinate, if possibly only by formality, he deduced.

 _This will be... interesting... I mean, it'd be best to let him take command again, once we're back... Seeker is so much more experienced than I am... He's got a big pack behind him, plus the flyers and Path, since years... But it's not gonna be that simple, is it? I doubt my own damn instincts will go easy on me... And I also doubt Alba or Union would welcome it very much... But maybe we could... each lead our own pack...? No, that's just stupid... Two male alphas in one pack? Sharing one territory? It just wouldn't work in the long run... It would be an insult to all of them... We're raptors, naturally aggressive predators... We'd be killing each other in less than a week over petty arguments... But, then again, us three are not enough to safely claim our own territory, either... Argh... What do I do...?  
_

Luckily, however, these concerns lay in the future. For now, the assumption that Union had simply followed the orders given to her by someone like Skull or Bloodhorn gave Specter some peace of mind, enabled him to concentrate on the hunt instead of pack hierarchies. And this time, he would make it stay that way.

After another five minutes of walking finally, the fastbiter duo slowed down considerably. The domehead group was directly ahead, less than 100 meters, or four longneck-lengths, away. Now was the time to stalk, find the right position and then wait for the right moment to strike. So the massive Utahraptor and his Dakotaraptor hunting partner lowered their stances, approaching the as of yet invisible group of omnivores with utmost care, only their scents guiding them.

Though, some extra measures had to be taken for this one to work flawlessly.

For one, they had to stay far enough away so that Specter wouldn't be spotted, as his black and golden feathers made him rather easily visible in a lush green environment such as this forest at daytime. The heavily clouded dark sky and wet flora were on his side in terms of camouflage, but it always was a wise move never to underestimate the sometimes very keen senses of the prey. To Specter, there was absolutely no telling how good a Pachycephalosaurus' awareness of its surroundings really was. Union's dark brown feathering, only the underside of her body mostly in white, on the other hand, was less of a problem. She blended in nicely with the many prehistoric plants and bushes, Specter found.

And for the other, he also had to consider that he still wanted to talk to her a bit, ask Union some questions and relay the overall scheme of things to her. Though certainly more silent than a talking Tyrannosaurus, Specter had nonetheless long since noticed that his size made him too audible to hold a clear conversation of raptor grunts, snarls and growls right next to the prey. So he figured that it would be too hard to keep 'whispering' for the length of this upcoming talk, which would bring the hefty risk of misunderstandings as well. And the last thing he wanted was for Union to take anything he would say the wrong way. Not while the entire situation with her still was so incredibly volatile.

Thus the goal was to find the picture perfect position that granted both a safe distance to the targets whilst still offering vision and a decently clear route for a fast approach. In theory, a close to impossible task.

 _In theory..._

"Union, when you spotted them earlier, did you also see a position suitable for the two of us while we're waiting for the second male to show up?"

"Yes, sir." Union answered steadfastly. "There is indeed one that provides elevated line of sight on them, just over a longneck-length away from the glade they should still be in. It is not what I would call optimal, but... it should offer us all we need."

"Good, sounds decent enough, don't worry. Glad you sorted that out already. Show me."

"Understood."

Union's affirmation was followed by a slight change of course to the left, the domeheads now somewhere to the right. It didn't take much longer, only around 50 meters more, until both Specter and Union came to a stop, simultaneously looking to the right.

There they were. Four female and one male Pachycephalosaurs.

As Union had predicted, this position granted just about enough visual obscuration from the prey through moderately sized flora while also being noticeably elevated, and far enough away to have a seriously important talk without giving their presence away that easily. Although she certainly had been right about it not being optimal, as it clearly denied any of the two fastbiters a fast and silent approach. The underbrush was thick, the ground below it still wet and slippery, and littered with small branches. An ill-considered sprint from here would very likely result in a hunt-ruining fall, if not a day-ruining injury.

"Yeah..." Specter spoke up with a barely visible look of discomfort on his face, marginally regretting not going after the isolated domehead instead. But he was obstinate in such cases, so he refused to change the plan now. How to capitalize on a fight between the two males, however, was not yet completely clear to him. "Yeah, this will do nicely."

Having voiced his approval, Specter turned towards the targets, carefully used his feet to grab and throw away a few branches from his spot and proceeded to sit down. Union imitated that process right afterwards, yet she settled with relocating only one bothersome stick before laying down on her haunches next to Specter's left flank. A while of contemplative silence reigned over the two predators from then on as they observed the five domeheads with analytical eyes.

The females were all colored in dull shades, ranging from light grey to dark cream, and it seemed like they didn't care much about anything as they were relaxing around a massive tree in the middle of the small clearing. The male domehead among them, on the other hand, was an entirely different story when it came to appearance. Unlike the apparent previous leader of the small harem, this male here sported a much more colorful variety of scales, bones and quills. The prominent dome on its head was hued brightly, a mix of yellow and orange that also highlighted the spikes on top of its snout and occiput. The area around its eyes was black, spots of blue around each side of the snout. Its throat area was deep red, changing to a more brownish color as it went down towards the torso. Lastly, the pitch black quills on part of its back and tail topped the whole design off.

However, apart from the evidently appealing looks to females of its kind, Specter found that this Pachycephalosaurus really didn't look all that powerful at first glance. And neither at the second or third. It was, at best, only one or two years younger than the other male, but by far not as tall, bulky and muscular. Though appearances could always be deceiving, Specter wondered if this male had honestly beaten the other in a fair fight, or perhaps used a dirty ruse instead. Whatever way that confrontation had played out, the word 'traitor' certainly made a lot more sense now.

 _Well, so much for that... Just hope the other guy really shows up, and sooner rather than later, else this won't work... If at all... In the meantime, I guess I should..._

 **Splat, splat, splat, splat.**

Several, sizeable waterdrops from above abruptly fell down on Union's and Specter's feathers, one of the biggest ones hitting Specter's snout, which made him swing his head upward in surprise. It was only natural for the rainwater on the flora to slowly drip off after a recent shower, of course, but right now it had another reason.

A prehistoric bird with bicolored, black and red feathers and a long forked tail had landed on a high branch right above the two raptors, shaking the water off of its leaves. Realizing that, Specter only grinned faintly and let out a very low, not angry but somewhat warning and mocking growl as he glanced in wonder at the avian dinosaur.

 _Wonder what species you are... Wish I could ask... Hmm... In any event, I don't like that perch of yours... We might be somewhat related now, but whatever you are, birdie, I dare you shit on my feathers... I'll climb up there and quill you..._

"I agree, sir, this is not good. It seems they have spotted us already..."

He instantly swung his head to the left, focusing on Union again, just a fraction of a second after she had so calmly stated that. Definitely startled now, Specter switched looks between her and the domeheads in rapid succession, three times, thinking any one of the dinosaurs had seen them all of a sudden in the few seconds he had been foolishly distracted with the bird. Then, however, he noticed that Union wasn't looking at the domeheads but rather through a breach in the treetops above.

Specter followed her gaze, and what he then laid eyes on made him relax again, exhale deeply, though it was a concerning sight regardless.

 _Oh... Crap... Not good... Looks like the scavengers are already here..._

At least one medium-sized Pterosaur and several more of those fork tailed birds circled high up in the sky, directly above the spot the domeheads were in.

Observing, anticipating, waiting.

Now, in no way ever would they be of any _direct_ danger to two raptors like Specter and Union, of course. The actual problem was that any kind of prey generally took those airborne creatures as a clear sign of imminent danger. In Littlefoot's pack even, all of the former leaf-eaters naturally aware of such things, Petrie was often in charge of keeping the skies clear before and until after a hunt, in addition to his usual duties. The logic behind this was subtle, perhaps, yet very simple.

When there were flyers in the sky, waiting for something, it usually meant there would soon be food on the ground. And where there would soon be food, there were mostly likely sharpteeth closely nearby, just waiting to prey upon unsuspecting leaf-eaters. Or bothteeth, in the current situation.

Unfortunately for the fastbiter duo, it was entirely up to the domeheads now to interpret that rather obvious sign. Neither Specter nor Union had the power to do anything against it but warily await the potential change of situation. It were moments like these that Specter heavily, subconsciously disliked, when nature decided to make a plan trickier than it already was. Especially when it was most likely his imposing body size and golden crest feathers the flyers had spotted so easily, causing him to already blame himself for his carelessness. Then again, how else should he have approached?

However, and luckily for the fastbiter duo, all the female domeheads were pretty much snoozing at this point, and the male among them seemed to care just as little about its environment as it lay on its side right next to them and chewed on a few branches that carried some berries. Even though the flyers kept their quiet for the better part, some were audibly communicating, in particular the Pterosaur which seemed to try and chase the birds away from its future food source, and both Specter and Union were aware that any of the domeheads should've been able to spot them instantly, simply by looking through the gaps in leafage above them.

But at the moment they did not.

"Well... Doesn't look like they care much, does it?" Specter stated, letting out an audible sigh of relief.

"No, it does not. To their demise, to our gain." Union, in all her sobriety, finished the thought that Specter had had on his tongue as well but firmly refrained from uttering. She then lowered her voice considerably as she went even further, squinting her eyes as she assessed the situation for herself. "What a disgraceful leader, your death will be well deserved..."

Specter heard her every word, though he knew he wasn't supposed to. Regardless, he did not comment on it. Even the empathic side of him could not disagree. He was a leader himself, for the next couple of weeks. Perhaps even until his death, should things not work out properly. Having empathy with a bad leader, such as this domehead, who put all their companions at severe risk...

His silence said more than words could ever have done.

But since, technically, they were having a conversation now, albeit a bone-dry one, Specter decided not to let that go to waste and instead finally get things straight between himself and his newest, well, 'soon-to-be' packmate. The 'hunt' really was just a waiting game, at this point. Any more hesitation to speak up now would make the whole talk even more awkward later on, perhaps with a serious risk of premature interruption, he thought to himself.

"Alright then, Union, I hope you don't mind if you and I have a little chat until it's time to move in."

"Of course not, sir." Union responded, looking at Specter with a neutral expression on her face, but not one that communicated disinterest in any way. "I am willing to answer and explain everything you deem worthy to know."

"Good. Then firstly..." Specter started, carrying a stern expression to go along with his voice. The following he really wanted to get out of the way, first. It was just bothering him too much by now. And so, taking a deep breath, he continued. "Drop the 'sir' already, will you...? I'm not that old, and I can see you respect me, so no need for that. Just call me by my name."

Seeing the faint smile on Specter's face that had suddenly emerged upon finishing his sentence almost made Union's jaw drop, striking her like a deadly claw. This emotion radiating from the black fastbiter now, this hint of jest, honesty and friendliness... And this sudden, soft tone, as if the cold murderer of her friend would ever be capable of that, so Union had thought before. Nothing, really nothing was supposed to fit his true demeanor in any way, shape or form.

And the worst part? All of it looked real, sounded real, felt real... and smelled real.

 _No... No, it can't be! It just... just..._

Just in time, she managed to redirect the abrupt urge to cringe into her extensively crested tail, the little twitch of it going unnoticed by Specter. Though she couldn't help but look at the ground, still. Indeed, this was another hefty reminder to Union. And a terrifying realization just as much.

 _He... He truly can... fake... or alter... his scents...?!_

Immediately after this mental jolt, however, she quickly and steadily fell back into her state of mind from before.

Did it shock her? Sure, most definitely. This black sharptooth had casually proven to her that the 'most important lesson for fastbiters' when interacting with other sharpteeth was entirely useless to apply here, after all. But did it honestly surprise her? Did it honestly surprise her that Specter would be way harder to deal with than any other sharptooth there ever was? Being honest with herself, no, not really. Not at all. Until now, she had simply hoped that Skull exaggerated with his advice on how to behave around Specter, her new, temporary leader.

But, as it turned out, her brother had not exaggerated even in the slightest.

 _That does it! You can't surprise me! You will never!_

Union clenched the fingers on her left forelimb with such intensity that she was only moments away from piercing her own skin. But then, came the next blink of her eyes, in an instant, she completely relaxed her entire body, looked back up at Specter and nodded firmly.

"Will do, Specter. I'm sorry, I fear this is... just rather new for me..."

The memories of her past, her younger days, had firmly burned themselves into her mind, erasing all of her emotions. Her parents, alive one day before, dead the night after, mangled by the very same disdainful creatures that she and her allies now sought to cleanse from their fortified hiding place. Had Skull not been there, had he not come up with the perfect solution to evade their attackers, both herself and Decay would have died as well, this much Union was certain of. And soon enough, if executed correctly, perhaps she could even use the murderer of her friend, the fastbiter right next to her, to acquire viable information, so that this great mission would finally be accomplished.

 _For the good of all..._

"Not to worry. Just take it slow." Specter answered, letting the smile on his face widen ever so slightly, just enough so as not to appear amused, as he went on to finish his point. "I reckon we'll be stuck with each other for quite a while now. No need to rush anything."

Union only nodded once more. It was enough of a reaction to Specter, though he still found her very hard to figure out.

 _Damn, just what must it have been like under Bloodhorn? Did he eat everyone who addressed him by his name, or what?_

No feelings of anger should enter his mind, however. The fact that Bloodhorn had ripped his own brother's arm off, then convinced him that violating Alba would get him his limb back, and then even killed Chaser in such a cowardly fashion, caused Specter to feel nothing anymore whenever he thought about the massive Carnotaurus. Literally nothing. This sharptooth was the one who had taught him the real feeling of hate with his actions, or rather the feeling which lay beyond hate, nothingness. Very possibly a vital teaching for when he should have to face Bloodhorn, Specter pondered.

This grudge of his did not concern the here and now, though. And it definitely did not concern Union.

"Now then..." Specter spoke up again. "While I do want to talk about you, there is... one thing, concerning myself, I would like you to tell me first."

"Yes?"

"When we first met, you said that I killed Bloodhorn's brothers. I take it that means 'all three of them' in full. So, are there any more of those... 'stories' about me?"

"I have heard some very few rumors, yes, but... nothing entirely conclusive. Most don't even know what you look like." Union responded, tilting her head for a moment since she could not clearly comprehend what Specter tried to achieve with this now. Though it was definitely clear to her what she had to do now. Telling the truth, slowly getting him to trust her. "And I've never believed in mere rumors, which... is why I approached you so carefully. I had to be sure..."

"Hmm. Then perhaps you should know the full truth from me right away." Specter looked away from Union, at no particular imaginary point somewhere in the forest. Too uncomfortable he felt with saying the next few lines straight to one's face, one that was supposed to get to know his best side, but the memories of that one certain night had already riled up his emotions. "I killed two of his brothers. Don't know what their names were, and I don't care at all. It then was Alba who finished off the other one. And... I never thought I'd say this but... to be honest, in hindsight, I would've liked to kill all of them personally. Slowly. They wanted to hurt her, do disgusting things to her that are simply inexcusable, far beyond anything forgivable. And I won't let anyone get away with such things, no matter who or what they are..." At this point, Specter suddenly restored eye contact again and raised his voice a little higher to really emphasize what he wanted to tell Union. "But I'm not a fastbiter of all too many words, so let me put it very plain and clear now. From this night on, I did _not_ take any more lives you could have possibly been familiar with. I wasn't there anymore when Chaser fought and died at the Great Divide... So whatever else you heard about me, it's a lie. Nothing more, nothing less. You understand?"

The look that Union received from Specter as he said that was so intense that she had great trouble maintaining eye contact. She felt strongly intimidated, but also startled, slightly angry and insulted. Because Specter's statement was true. Or rather, it _smelled_ like the truth. Of course, Union knew otherwise, but that was not the point. The point was that she didn't feel surprised. At all. She never felt anything close to losing control over her emotions, this time. She never felt that burning anger. And she certainly did not feel like a change in her view on Specter would come anytime soon. If anything, she was only growing more determined to get rid of him.

Finally, ultimately, definitively.

Strange feelings in a number of ways, perhaps, and yet perhaps merely because Union had already seen those disgusting words, lies, coming since two days. She couldn't have been more prepared for them. Whereas, just earlier, it had been rather shocking indeed to experience Specter's casual, 'friendly', 'funny' side. His fake side, anyway. Then again, his statement about Bloodhorn's brothers, for what could they have possibly done to this hideous White One besides killing her for her deeds, only showed Union hints of Specter's true personality.

"Yes, I understand." Was the sure, controlled answer that came from her. "Though I am unsure why you would care, I assure you, you need not worry about your... reputation, as far as I know. Nor about my reasons, I should add. I never imputed what happened to you."

 _Because I know you did it... and so do you..._

"I care because I hate lies. And chances are, you have heard some." Specter's voice had quickly become annoyed, borderline angry by now, which was why he only received two stunned blinks from Union, indicating that this was not exactly the right approach here to get his point across. And Specter knew this well enough himself, so he sighed deeply and softened his voice again. "Alright. Alright, good..." But he did look away from Union as he continued further, still. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm digging up bad memories here, for both of us actually, but you're giving me not much choice but to be that clear and earnest about this matter. After all... your brother..."

And it was right then that he instantly shrouded himself in dead silence.

Union had reacted while Specter avoided eye contact. But she had not done so with mere words. Not at all.

No, something far more powerful.

 _Is... Is that...?_

Leaning over forty-five degrees to her left side, Union had her neck flexed all the way around to the right, using the sickle claw on her right foot to pull down the many brown protofeathers on her neck. However, they were visibly not completely brown around that place.

They were red. Blood red, with a deep and rather fresh scar on her skin below.

"Him? No, Specter, I have no intention of returning to him anytime soon, if that is what you meant to ask..." She spoke without any emotion, now that Specter had evidently seen what she wanted to show him assuming a normal position again as she straightened out her neck and placed her foot back on the ground. Focusing on the domeheads with a deadpan look on her face, she raised her voice once more. "Do you require anything else?"

As a matter of fact, Specter actually did. He required a lot more.

How many sharpteeth the enemy had among their ranks. Who really was in charge of this massive 'army'. Who this 'Mist' was. What had become of Shade, and so on. Union was a hugely important source of invaluable information, after all.

But he was at a loss for words for the moment. Union's voice had communicated bitterness, not anger in response to his concerns, so that wasn't the problem. It was, however, that he had never noticed this glaring wound on Union's neck. She had traveled by his left side for the entire time, thus hiding this injury from him, but he felt immensely bad for not having seen or smelled it, regardless. He felt like he had crossed the line, pushed things too far with his implications. And most of all, he felt uncaring, and like a massive asshole.

Ultimately, Specter gave no vocal answer himself.

And this should conclude the conversation for the time being. Both fastbiters focused entirely on their prey now in silence.

 _Just great... Just fucking great! I only hope things are going better between Alba and Blaze..._

* * *

 **And there we go, I finally got around to finish the second part of this monstrosity. This was actually the section which gave me the most trouble, I don't know exactly why. I had everything but the last few passages written out since months, but never managed to wrap them up, for some reason. A lot of work over the past weeks went into refining and overhauling everything, but it still annoys me how long this all took. I must also apologize again for the slight delay, but I was really feeling under the weather for a few days and had another set of exams on top. I do have quite a bit of free time again now, however, and I plan to use it. Obviously, there will be a part III of this coming soon, which will most likely conclude this 'mini series' of sorts.  
**

 **First, though, I really would like to catch up on all the progress I have missed over the last months on Rhombus' "Mender's Tale" and Nimbus01's "To Tread Upon Fields Afar". Two stories I thoroughly enjoy reading and would recommend to anyone who hasn't tried them already.  
**

 **So, this all said, I do hope you like this installment; thanks for reading and reviewing, and see you all sometime around February for the conclusion to this.**

 **Take care, have a nice day, and until later!**


	31. Author's Note - Recap & Roadmap

Hello everyone,  
So, 2017 has finally passed and the story still lies dormant. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a (slightly belated) happy new year of 2018, and thank everyone who has been sticking with me on this journey, in spite of 2017 really being a terribly uneventful year of progress for this story. And, of course, I would like to welcome and thank all the potential new readers who have only joined rather recently.

I very much appreciate all of your support!

Now, with this author's note I would like to clarify a few more things whilst also very quickly recapping what I've conveyed in the two previous notes (which I have now deleted, for the sake of clarity). Let's start with the recap, shall we?

 **1.** The Eighth Hunter is currently **on hold** for an **unspecific amount of time**. This, however, does **not** mean I have abandoned it.

 **2.** At the time of this writing, the story is undergoing a final overhaul to iron out a lot of things and improve it in general. A _**(Final Version)**_ marker at the bottom of each chapter indicates completion of said overhaul there. **Please do not** confuse it with the _**Revised**_ markers, which are from way back when I first improved the writing and plot a little bit sometime in 2016.

Alright, with that summed up, I of course write this note because I really want to make some progress with year. Thus, I think it would be a good idea to post a little "roadmap" here:  
\- I plan to have the entire story overhauled **by the end of February**. The Prologue and Chapter 1 are already done, though I will probably take another quick look over them. Following that, Chapter 2 right up until Chapter 29 will be improved.  
\- With the overhaul then finally done, actual work on the story will recommence. I will not list a specific deadline for the release of Chapter 30 here, but I generally aim for **Summer of 2018**.

Three things of note concerning the **overhaul** :

 **1.** None of the changes will affect the major storyline/plot. The aim of all this is to improve and drastically refine characters and certain events, giving them much more detail and nuance. You will not have to re-read the entire story to understand further events, however, if there were places that left you unsatisfied for any given reasons I would recommend going back, if you're interested. Sub-plots and some motives will likely be subject to certain alterations, though.

 **2.** Only the first act (Chapters 1 - 8) really is somewhat of a bugbear for me. Everything following that, I am mostly satisfied with, and thus will only be subject to grammatical corrections and enhancements of language. It is of course entirely possible that, upon detailed re-reading on my part, something more major pops up that I would like to alter, but I am certain that the likelihood of that will be miniscule.

 **3.** As you can probably already guess from **2.** , the time needed for this will reduce drastically as I progress to the second act. So it might be entire possible that I will be done with the overhaul before the date mentioned above. However, since I want to keep this the final iteration of the story upon completion of the improvements, please understand that I will likely stick to my deadline and not rush anything out.

I hope I didn't forget anything, but yeah, this should be everything for the moment. Thank you for taking your time reading this, and I hope to be bringing some more content soon™.

Take care!


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